spring city

Here are a few pictures from our walk this morning. The weather is incredible-high of about 80 today with a nice breeze! Andy wore his shorts and sandals. We took a walk this morning after we had breakfast and then again this afternoon! We are leaving the warm weather to visit some friends in another city for a few days. Their weather is usually grey and polluted! So we are hoping to bring some sunshine to them-we are bringing lots of treats from our city-fruits, flowers, and baked goods from a local western shop! Hopefully that will at least encourage them even if we can't bring the sunshine along with us! So, we won't be on the blog for a few days. But hope you enjoy this pictures!

We are loving March Madness. This year we are able to watch the games over the internet and the picture is really good! We were so sad that WVU couldn't pull out the win on Thursday night but we are hoping our Tar Heels go all the way!

Heading out for a walk...My favorite spot in town right now-a street lined with gorgeous trees! we walk here everyday.Here is the entrance to our apartment...we live on the first and second floor. The window with the white shears on the second floor is EG's. Small window is our laundry room. Downstairs big window is our dining room and the smaller one is the kitchen. We are not huge fans of the bars on our windows but they are needed for safety. Theft is a big problem here. We are getting them installed upstairs too. We have a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday bath schedule...Emma Grace loves bath time!

I love cheese toast the most

On Monday morning I was eating cheese toast for breakfast and gave Emma Grace a little taste. She gobbled it right up! On Tuesday I had cheese toast again for breakfast. Andy was holding Emma Grace and I was eating my toast. I put the last bite in my mouth and was still chewing it when I walked by Andy and Emma Grace. She almost jumped out of Andy's arms to reach for me. This is the first time she's ever done this and I was feeling REALLY good. If that were the end of the story, I would've entitled this blog, "I love my mom the most." While I was still gloating about her obvoius preference for me over Andy, she proceeded to do what looked like mouth to mouth on me-we both immediately realized she was trying to get the cheese toast out of my mouth and that is why she leaped out of her dad's arms-not for her mama. She put a quick stop to my gloating with her attempted extraction of my taost and Andy got the last laugh. Needless to say, I gave her cheese toast for lunch that day!

Drinking Yoghurt: In Asia yoghurt is a drink. I have been going against the cultural norm and feeding it to her with a spoon but yesterday she learned to drink out of a straw and drank a whole container of yoghurt! It's so convenient-America should catch on!

Helping with the Laundry

Emma Grace and I were working on some laundry yesterday. Here's a little video of her loving the laundry...

A few minutes later, this is how she was feeling about the laundry...(you know EG, I feel the same way!)

Easter weekend

Here's a quick run down of our Easter weekend:

Friday John and Alisa came over for a "servant sleepover" (they called it this becasue they came to hang out and served us by making a great breakfast of French Toast, eggs, bacon, and fruit. Here's Kayleigh in her Geo Prism, Julianna in her honda accord, and Emma Grace in her old school convertible cadillac. (aka hoopty-Sheryl, did you know you bought us a hoopty? hehe) This is in our apartment complex.Kayleigh and Emma Grace playing on the floor in the afternoon. After the girls went down for the night, we watched American Idol and Lost! After the sleepover we took it easy on Saturday because we knew Sunday woudl be a big day:

HAPPY EASTER! After Church, we returned to our house for lunch with the Kvernens. Here are Emma Grace and Lydia having their lunch with their daddies!Our lunch spread was great: Ribs in the crockpot (A Matt K special) girlled chicken, green bean bundles (thanks Tamara for the recipe) twice baked potato casserole, deviled eggs, homemade bread, couscous salad and a chocolate pie that was to die for! Xiao li made that! Here's Andy and Laura's Dad hand grinding some coffee after lunch. Thanks Papaw and Kathy for the grinder! (Paul was here for 3 weeks-it was fun to have a "grandpa" around-he loved on Emma Grace along with his two grandaughters!)AFter lunch we rested for a bit and then got ready for our neighborhood Easter Party! Laura and I made cross ornaments for everyone to paint their names on. This was a way for them to meet each other but also a way for them to take home the symbol of Good Friday.Here's the crew painting...everyone joined in. No one is "too cool" here! I love that!
After painting we went outside for an Easter Egg Hunt-They liked it alot. They were ressurection eggs-inside each contained some candy and a symbol about the Easter story-a cross, a stone, spear, etc. This was a great way for us to tell them about the meaning of Easter. Here's Grandma Wang, our neighbor, friend, and milk delivery lady! She found an egg in a tree and was really excited! (isn't Lydia cute?!!!!) Julianna gets some help finding eggs from a neighbor.Paul was the Easter Egg hider.Here's the whole crew after we talked about the Easter story and hung out...Kathi, The Driver Qi is the one on the far right back.



All in all a great day...

BOSSY ROSSY RETURNS

It's been a while since I've written...sorry about that. But I hope these pictures make it worth the wait!

Here's Emma Grace playing in her playpen early in the morning. She is wearing her ABC pajamas that were handmade by grandma...well, not her grandma but the Shickley's grandma! These were handed down to us and she is looking way cute in them! Kathi and Tim, notice she is loving the puppy!Finally! Here's a clear picture of her two teeth!
We took a walk this week on campus with the Kvernens. Julianna was entertaining the two little girls. You can imagine what a site these two little girls were-everyone was convinced they were twins!

Ok, here is the picture of the week. Notice that Emma Grace has a passy in her mouth. Now, notice that the passy is hooked to Lydia's bib! IT'S LYDIA'S and Emma Grace totally took it from her and popped it right into her own mouth. We were walking along and all the sudden I noticed that Emma Grace had a passy in her mouth-then it occured to me that I didn't bring a passy for her! We laughed really hard. I am a bit concerned that this might be a preview of Emma Grace's personality. Lydia is sooo laid back so I can totally see Emma Grace bossing her around! I imagine their conversation went something like this:

Emma Grace: Hey, I like that passy you've got. Let me have it.
Lydia: ok.
Emma Grace: Thanks Lydia. You are a great friend. You give me whatever I want.



Andy named me Bossy Rossy when we were in college because some say I have a little bossy streak in me. I cried when he said that because I also have quite a sensitive streak in me (and I knew it was true) So I guess Emma Grace gets it naturally!

Are you fancy or just Nancy?

Here's a non picture post that I hope everyone will comment on!


I am getting bored with my current repertoire of recipes! (which isn't big or interesting) So, I had an idea of how I can get some new ideas for meals to cook-YOU! So here's what you need to do-post a comment and tell me that last three dinner meals you've eaten. They don't have to be fancy (actually preferably not) and you don't need to include the recipes. It's just a fun way I can generate some new meal ideas.

So, here's ours:

Hobo dinners (kielbasa and veggies grilled in aluminum foil)
Pizza-take out while babysitting
Chicken Parmesan with salad

OK, that's embarrassing. hopefully you feel comfortable to share your last three meals with me now that you know we eat hobo dinner and take out pizza! We ain't fancy, we're just Nancy. That's a quote my mom and I like to say about our lives because that was the motto of our "budget conscious down home country wedding caterer" and it aptly describes our lives!

So, whether you're fancy or just Nancy, please let me hear what you eat!

9 months

As you all know from reading the blog, this has been a big month for Emma Grace! She has two teeth now, her hair has picked up speed in the growth department and she is officially bi-lingual. (see videos for her response to both English and chinese!)

For those of you who are interested in the other two Huffmans: I am starting my mom's group tonight. I am really excited to get together with these other moms for some fun and encouragment too! Andy is busy busy

Videos-SO BIG and clap your hands

Clap your hands!

Emma Grace has learned to clap her hands. We tell her in Chinese, "clap your hands" (sounds like pie pie show) and she claps! Yipee. This is her first real trick and she learned it in a second language. She's a genius.

Fun Sunday

Many of you were tuned in for the Carolina Duke game this weekend. We also were able to watch it with a bunch of UNC fans on our sling box. (thanks again Timbo and Kacki!) The quality wasn't HD for sure, but after years of only being able to listen to the games, we were very thankful to get to watch it. Our good friends, Marianne and David hosted a little get together for a group of us and they fixed quite the spread. It was a combination of breakfast food (since the game was on the morning here) and game food. The menu included coffee cake, choc chip cookies, which David has perfected at high altitude, hot wings with ranch, veggies and dip and drinks. YUMMY! And to top it all off, the HEELS brought home a sweet victory on the road. (Uncle Bill, thanks for the cute UNC shirt for EG)

After our brunch, we headed over to the Shickleys to girll out. Marlene is responsible for us not starving when we got back here after we had EG. She made lots of meals for us during that time. They are really good friends and we love their sense of humor. They have four kids who put on a "show" for us after lunch. For all my family members, just think "Brandi and Erin type shows performed for you on our weekly Friday night family get togethers!" For the first time I realized how kind you guys were to watch the same show over and over and over week after week. It was fun to be a kid and I sure do miss those days when we had a band, Brandi! Here's a blurry picture of the kids with Emma Grace after their performance.

What a fun day. It's monday morning now and my living room has exploded with 12-18 month clothes that we got last night for Emma Grace from the US. Mom, thanks again for getting all that stuff together-love the new stuff you got her! Kacki and Poopaw-we got the glove and meds! thanks! Our friends Laura and Matt are hosting a group of 6 men from their parents' building in Raleigh. They brought lots of stuff for many of us here. It will be fun to show them around and help them see what life is like here. Laura's Dad is among the group of men, so you know he is so excited to see his 2 little pumpkins, Julianna and Lydia!

What's your life really like?

I hope that the blog has allowed you to see a little more clearly what our life is like here in East Asia. It's really hard to explain to people who have never been here and to really do it justice. Our friends, the Dickeys are currently in another Asian country adopting their 4th child and I have really enjoyed their email updates that include things about the adoption as well as the things they find different and surprising about a different country. So, I am inspired to write a little list of things that are different about my life here. Some differences in our life are welcomed while others are hard to adjust to. But that's true of any country. I am so used to many of these, but I am going to try and remember the things that surprised me when I first came here that I think you too would find interesting:

The light switches for the bathrooms are on the outside, not inside the bathroom
Traffic laws here are suggestions...NO ONE OBEYS THE TRAFFIC LAWS!
Selt belts are often not in cars and even if they are, you don't use them.
I have my milk delivered to my door every other day
but I have to drive about 30 mins to get bread that I like
People throw trash everywhere...there are street sweepers to clean the mess (everyone needs a job)
children wear split bottom pants are are trained to pee at the sound of a wistle.
We don't have heat or air
We have bars on our windows because....
crime is VERY different than in america. I am not scared for my physical safety but pick pocketing and theft is HUGE here!
a bottle of pepsi costs me 40 cents
a bunch of gerber daisies costs me 15 cents. (andy has no excuse not to buy me flowers)
the REQUIRED age of retirement here is 50 for women and 55 for men so...
kite flying, card playing and smoking cigarettes from HUGE water bongs are favorite past times for retired people. Grandparents care for the grandkids while the children work
I buy pork that has been killed hours before and is sometimes still steaming
imported Cheerios cost 12 dollars a box. we don't eat those
I have to make my own sour cream
We walk ALOT..to resturants, mini marts, market, school.
Everyone gets a two hour rest everyday and most people really take a nap during that time
most people in our generation here are only children
with those you have close relationships, it is polite to address them as sister, uncle, aunt, etc.
(I was really confused at first because all my friends here call all their cousins by sister.)
I call the man that often drives us places Uncle Qi (chee)
buildings aren't required to have elevators unless they have more than 7 floors. There are a lot of 7 floor apartment buildings. (we lived on the 6th floor last year)
98% of the population doesn't own a dryer and wouldn't know what it was if they saw it.
Most resturants are open air, with no doors, windows, etc (at least in our part of the country)
Housing is all made of concrete with plaster over it...no wood and dry wall
in order to attract customers stores will often have employees stand outside and clap really loudly-for hours
Everything I need for basic daily life is in walking distance of my house


well, hope you found that interesting.

5 Little Monkeys part 2

Well yesterday we had a "5 little monkeys" part 2 photo shoot. This one is a little different in that Aria and her parents have moved back to America and Callie and her parents, Jeremey and Anita are back from Canada, where Callie was born about 2 months ago! You can see little Callie in the middle, being "held" by Julianna, the biggest of our crew. Alisa, mom of Kayleigh (red haired babe), Laura, mom of far left Lydia and Julianna, Anita and I are starting a mom's group. Last semester we had a "play group" where we would get together with the kids so they could hang out and we tried to hold a conversation while taking care of all these youngins-let's just say conversations were scattered and interpersed with nursing, feeding, diaper changing, discipline, etc. So this semester, we are starting a mom's time with no kids-except nursing ones of course. We are planning to meet every other week and discuss a book we are reading together, called the Pursuit of God. It will be a fun time for us to talk, pray together and just have some no-kid hang out time!



Emma Grace is very interested in baby Callie! Anita ran over to get her camera and got the attention of 3 out of the 5...
still don't have everyone looking at the camera...Maybe Julianna is telling her little sister what to do. I was like that as a big sister.

Random pictures

Things are good around these parts. Emma Grace is playing with Xiao Li while I work on a few things on the computer. I just deleted the 1000+ emails in my inblox. I figured if I haven't answered them yet, there's not much hope! Feels good to have an empty inbox. I know Andy will be proud. He is always trying to me to delete my old emails. Actaully, he convinced me to clean out my yahoo emaill while in Thailand. A big reason I hadn't done it before was becasue I couldn't figure out how to delete them all at once. I thought I had to go through and delete them one by one (which by the way, there were more than 2500 in that acct) anyway, another reason is that I figured we might need something from one of the emails. But when Andy showed me the "select all" button I was convinced. NOT LESS THAN a week later and we needed some medical records...guess where they were? DELETED from my email. Never should've listened to that organized, got-it-together husband of mine.

here are a few pictures I have been meaning to post. they are really random but I thought the grandparents might enjoy. Everyone else is welcome to enjoy too!

cute dress bought by one of the grandmas...sorry i can't remember which! Getting ready for church. She wore a little white sweater over it. All the shoes we have that are the right length don't fit her because her feet are too fat!

Looking at mom while getting ready for bed.

Our bedroom. This bedspread and quilt are from Tim and Kathi. They brought it over for Christmas for us! I told them the colors of our bedroom and she picked it out. She did a great job matching the colors. The mirror was something I had made last year for our living room but now have it in our bedroom. Kathi picked out the plates for the wall while she was here. Remember in my last post I talked about EG eating books when I try to read to her...

back up and running

Yipee! John was able to fix our computer and save all our important stuff in the process. Thanks John! Andy is planning on backing everything up this week-lesson learned.

Well, let's see. What's going on here? Not much. Andy is back at work and EG and I are enjoying a little routine in our lives. Here's how our day looks:

6:00 Andy and EA get up
7:00 Emma Grace gets up and eats breakfast and plays
8 ish we usu go on a walk around our little town
9:00 down for a nap-I usu take a shower and start working on dinner/read email etc.
11:00 back up and time to get ready for lunch
lunch and then self play (this is a new skill we are working on)/playing with mom
1:00 time for another nap (babies sleep a lot!) I like to read in the afternoon and often work on dinner, or whatever around the house
3:00 snack and play-read books (which means she eats a book while I try to hold one far enough away from her that I can actually read it to her) go outside, etc
5:00 dinner/sometimes a bath/get ready for bed
6:00 Time for her "dark nap"

That's the exciting life of a 9 month old and her mom.

On a side note, I think every one of you should start your own blog. I want to read them!

The blue screen of death

I love my computer because it's little and easy to use and fairly fast and I have this cute computer fix-it guy named Andy who always seems to know how to fix all our computer problems. Until...we get the blue screen of death. Many of you have faced this screen before and know the terror and frustration that comes when you see it pop up unexpectedly. Yesterday morning we turned on our less than two year old computer to find the blue screen and nothing Andy tried fixed it. AHHH. Thankfully, we have a good friend, John, who is a real computer guru and is working on it. The plan of action right now is to back up all the data from our computer, erase everything, reinstall stuff (that's technical) and then put the data back on. What this means to me is that there is HOPE of saving all the bazillion pictures I have taken of Emma Grace over the last 9 months. My lesson: back up my important stuff. I am consoled knowing that atleast I have the blog, where the highlights are stored, but I am so sad that we might lose lots of other pictures. So pray with us that John will be able to fix our computer and save our files-esp the pictures! will keep you posted. Currently using our older computer, which works fine but doesn't have all our important documents, pics, etc on it.