In all things give thanks

I have some time to write! Probably no pictures today. No time to figure that out. Does anyone know how to get all iphotos from my mac onto an Apple computer? For now phone downloads will have to work.

June at the park. 

I love being in the Primary and hearing the children sing beautiful primary songs. Words from one of my favorites the kids are singing now--

"He gave me my eyes that I might see

the color of butterfly wings.

He gave me my ears that I might hear

the magical sound of things.

He gave me my life, my mind, my heart,

I thank him reverently.

For all his creations of which I'm a part

Yes I know Heavenly Father loves me."

Because I have been given much, I feel so blessed. This song reminds me of that, and witnesses this to me every time I hear this song.

I have been basing some of our family home evenings on this and talking about Heavenly Father's creations, and blessings we receive.

I think Will is getting it, maybe, because he came to me the other day with a Mickey Mouse DVD and asked if he could watch it. Then he said, "Heavenly Father created DVD's so we can watch them. And Heavenly Father created TV's so we can watch them."

I do love how Will will walk around the house singing primary songs like the one above. It makes me happy.

Handsome haircut

June liked the hair wash and cut

June is talking a lot. Here is an example of some of her conversations we have.

Will and Taylor went over to our neighbors house for a late dinner visit. I didn't expect him home till later so hadn't made a proper dinner.

He left with Will. June, naturally, was upset she couldn't go along. I was going to put her to bed.

She went to the front door, opened it, looked at me and I said, "Where are you going, June?"

"See Will", was her reply.

"But how will you find him?"

"2 minutes!" she said. Kinda like, 'Give me 2 minutes to find Will, and I'll be back'.

Then she said bye.

I followed her out to see where she would go. Once she knew I was coming she freely walked down the stairs and out of the bldg and headed to another friends house...

Taylor and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary last month. To celebrate the day we woke up at 5AM, outfitted ourselves in Lycra, and biked, or I should say sped, around a 5k park perimeter for 30km at gut wrenching speeds. It was a good day.

The best 6 years of my life. I'm one lucky gal to have found him. 

What a stud

Cyclists are an interesting sort of breed. In the past, I've always been intimidated by the sport. Lean, mean, bodies maneuvering something more akin to a  'hanger'-some reporter described it a few days ago on a Tour de France stage. Shaved, muscly legs, funny tan lines. Matching lycra outfits that are actually called 'kits'-who knew? Hard helmets hiding emotionless faces, sunglasses shielding eyes you can never read.

Machines-not men. This was a subconscious preconceived notion of the sport I long held. 

It takes practice to get out there and ride with a peloton, I'm figuring out. Because of Taylor's demonic speed (when I first went to a cycling get together I was introducing myself to one of the wives and she said, "Oh! You're Taylor's wife. I know all about Taylor. Kevin comes home every morning saying, 'Well, Taylor destroyed it again today'. 'Taylor rode everyone off his wheel.' 'Taylor made a strong pull for 10k.' etc.")he is well known, respected and liked in the cycling community. Therefore, they are more forgiving of me and my technical mistakes, I feel.

Last year when I was feeling despondent because I couldn't do the Great Wall Half because of my hip a friend of mine said that sometimes when we are forced to stop doing something we love, we find something else we love even more. I would have never guessed back then it would be cycling, and I never knew I could like the sport so much like I do now. I'm thankful for my friends wisdom.

When Tricia was here visiting (which by the way was awesome. I never got a chance to blog about it, but she did a great job on her blog) we talked about the saying, 'when one door closes, another opens'. I was just thinking of this last night because of something else, but this also applies here to. I'm thankful I was open to the idea of cycling, mostly due to Taylor and his love of the sport, and his encouragement, because I found something new and wonderful in my life.

Yesterday I took the kids to a local Chinese restaurant I know and like (Will loves his Chinese food), and it was quite crowded. We were sitting at a table for four, but were only using one side since June was on my lap. Two men came and asked to sit at our table since there were no seats elsewhere. This is a typical example of how the Chinese don't have the spacial boundaries that exist in the US. At first I was a little annoyed, but in the end, I'm so glad I acquiesced and let them take those seats, because we got to know them and made friends. One door closed when that meant June had to sit on my lap for lunch, but another door opened even wider when we made wonderful friends. I'm thankful I was open to letting them sit with us, however unwilling I was at first.

Ice cream at the park is always a winner.

And to end I'm feeling really grateful right now for all the wonderful friends I've made here in Shanghai. I feel that I rub shoulders with some of the finest women in the world, and I have learned so much from their life lessons. Some of those friends recently moved on (either back to their home country or to a new work position) and I'm meeting more wonderful people. And still more of my friends will return here at summers end. The selfless acts of service I witness daily from these women have taught me and changed me. I don't think they will ever know what an influence they have been on my life.

I guess when it takes 3 days to write one post it can get quite lengthy. :)

Before our boat ride. They were real excited to get on the boat but once on June kept saying, "See Baba. Scared. Boat. Get out." 

Will joined us on one of our date nights. June was in bed.

pool fun.

June in her 'princess' dress swinging from their 'swing'.