Two weeks have passed already!

Wow! I didn't really feel like posting today, but after noticing that the last time I did was two weeks ago, I feel compelled...I'm not even sure how many of you even read this! =)

Here are some tidbits of our life:

Today is Audriana's 7 month birthday! She celebrated by having a breakfast of waffle bits and mommy's milk, playing with her toys (which is an everyday event), doing a webcast for her Grandmother and Nano (that's my dad), licking my hat, ripping pages from my Sports Illustrated, and by taking several cat naps to help her get over her fever she started yesterday.

She at one point had a fever as high as 102.9, but has been just about as smily and cheerful as usual. We were supposed to go out to Skyline Drive today with some new Chinese friends of ours, Peng and Miaomiao, but had to cancel because of Audriana's fever.

The leaves are turning and falling already even though it's uncharacteristically warm for this time of year. It's been beautiful though, and I just love the Shenandoah Valley - the mountains, woodlands, landscape truly make living in Winchester a wonderful experience. We just praise God for his faithfulness and for having led us to be here and experience a part of his beautiful creation...

I guess the main reason that we haven't posted in so long is that we stay pretty busy during the week and we had visitors from Oregon to our house this past weekend. Chuck and Nelda Harle...were with us Saturday and Sunday. We actually went up to Gettysburg, PA on Saturday to tour the battlefield - which was a neat experience. I purchased the audio tour for anyone who would like to borrow it. =) They were in town to tell us about a really neat opportunity to work with some other friends of ours, Buster and Amy Canfield, whose blog you can catch at http://tonythered.com/canfields/...

I got in late last night after running up to Frederick, Maryland with my Chinese friend Paul...That's always a fun time.

We're getting ready for a pig roast this coming Saturday in which we should have a bunch of international students over at the home of another couple who are going to great lengths to set it up. I think they are building a pit for roasting the pig - should be a fun time.

Audriana went to Picture People (professional photo studio) in the mall here in Winchester and had a free 8x10 made of her in a sheep costume that her mother picked out for her before she was born. If anyone would like a wallet size copy of the (cute) picture, let me know and I'll rib Vikki into getting a sheet or two or however many we need to share with you. =) I actually would like to get some anyway, but it would be nice to know who to send them to.

...We worked on this some over this past week and have finished a position for 2 Corinthians 4:7. I've published our position on Google Docs if anyone is interested in reading it. Click the link below to take you there:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfpfp3d_0vctz6w

Our love to you!

Saturday...

Today Vikki and I went out for a 'date.' There's this really cool 'pollo a la brasa' restaurant in Winchester that's run by a native Bolivian. It's the closest thing to latino rotisserie chicken that I've had since our research trip to Peru in the summer of '02. We had authentic Inca Kola, and yuca (Audriana especially liked the yuca), to go along with the chicken. Wow it's great...the only thing I didn't like was that I tried to speak Spanish to the owner and he was totally unimpressed. I mean I'm getting pretty good at speaking Spanish, and it didn't mean much to him at all. I remarked to Vikki that maybe he gets a lot of people trying to practice their Spanish on him...but I think it's more than that. Something about speaking the native language of the people in their country is impressive to the people of the country, but speaking a foreign language in your native country to others who speak the foreign language as their native language isn't. (i.e. speaking Chinese in China is adored by Chinese people, but it doesn't mean as much to speak Chinese to someone in America) It's like there's an inner circle of native speakers and you're not allowed in that circle...something like that.

Weird.

Anyway, for those of you who were wondering what yuca is, here's the definition from Wikipedia: "The cassava, casava, yuca or manioc (Manihot esculenta) is an a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae (spurge family) native to South America that is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates. Indeed, cassava is the third largest source of carbohydrates for human food in the world, with Africa its largest center of production.[1]"

Audriana loved it. She's starting to pull up on furniture and other objects now. Her mother tells me that she maneuvered from her belly to sitting up on her bottom for the first time today!

some thoughts

The last few nights I've spent my time alone without my family for the first time of its existence. Vikki and I both taught Wednesday night at Daniel Morgan Middle School, where we teach every Monday and Wednesday to adults. Our program, Northern Shenandoah Valley Adult Education (NSVAE), is almost exclusively comprised of hispanics - though there are some asian and european immigrants here as well. We have a deal worked out with Roger and Janie Luttrell (my mother and father-in-law) to spend the night with them on Wednesday evenings after class, which requires a twenty to thirty minute drive up highway 81 before we get to Inwood, West Virginia. That works out great because Grammy and Pa Pa get to spend time with Audriana and we get free childcare! =) However, this Thursday I had accidentally scheduled a substitute position for myself so I didn't go up to spend the night in Inwood Wednesday night. Vikki also substituted for NSVAE Thursday night, so Grammy and Pa Pa had double duty two nights in a row. So Vikki spent the night with them again and I am going to work in about an hour or so to sub at John Handley high school.

So, I've been a bachelor of sorts the last two nights. Man, that first night was weird. It was the first time that I've ever had an empty house like that. We live in the basement apartment of some ministry partners of ours, Tom and Lisa Strimple, with whom we reach out to international students at Shenandoah University. But even they were gone on a vacation to Hawaii, from which they returned last night. That empty house....it was sort of lonely and spooky at first. I've always had family, and then college with either roomates or housemates to share my life with - and while temporary, it was weird to be all alone like that. Jael, I can relate more to just wanting conversation like you were saying now...

Anyway - so I also discovered that this blog is now not as useful as I first thought it would be. So, China blocks practically all blogs on the face of the earth, er...cyberspace and none of the Chinese friends with which I hoped to be in touch with can even open this to read it! What's more, probably none of you could read the extremely cool Chinese characters I posted because you don't have Chinese language support installed on your computer. So, that was futile! This blog will now be exclusively for those of you in the western hemisphere with whom we stay in contact. Which, unfortunately for me means no more cool Chinese practice.

Can anyone read this: 再见！

Well, that's Chinese for goodbye in case anyone cares to install Chinese language support. =)

Saturday out with the family...

Vikki and I went out for a 'date' today and enjoyed what will probably be one of our last warm Saturdays of the year. The weather is turning soon, and people are already thinking of fall. We went to an Apple Harvest Craft Show and paid $5 admission/person, only to find out that if we'd waited five more minutes, it would have been free! Vikki had been wanting to go for a walk and it was nice to stroll around and see all the handiwork others had done. Today I'm trying to learn more about our camcorder so that we will be able to make DVD's of our home videos of Audriana. This morning Audriana and I went out to feed the three ponds of fish that the Strimples have - they are away on vacation to Hawaii. She would giggle at the catfish splashing around in the water. We also had the privilige of seeing a monarch butterfly upclose, and she seemed fascinated by it - though when it flew around it was hard for her to keep up with it. A beautiful day is drawing to its end and we are blessed...

Audriana really wanted to post something...

x , opionpqdl. bm ggbb- x 4bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb 6XCV

I think that means, "Blessings to all! :)"

Needing some help from friends in China...

你好！请帮我们。我们不知道你们会不会看到之个website. 如果你会看，清说了！在一个朋友不会看了。我们要帮他看我们的website. 如果你要correct我中文我感谢你!

Hi! Please help us. We don't know if you can see this website. If you can see it, please tell us! One of our friends can't see it. We want to help her see our website. If you want to correct my Chinese, I thank you very much!

Keeping in touch...

Hi guys,

I know that for many of you, you're wondering if we dropped off the face of the earth. The sad truth of the matter is that we can't keep up with all our e-mails anymore. I'm hoping that we'll be able to use this tool to keep in touch, so that at least you will be able to see what's going on with us. We'll still do e-mail, but we may try to blog more so that you will hear more from us. I feel sorry for all our wonderful Chinese friends who go months without hearing from us!

Probably most of you have not heard that recently Vikki and I decided to look at returning to China. We are thinking of coming back in the fall of '08 or spring of '09. That's all we know for now, but we are excited and are going to be making a plan for returning, Lord willing.

Here are some things that we'd like from you...

1) Definitely still keep in touch with us - we love hearing from all of you!
2) Let us know if you'd like to hear from us, whether you e-mail, want to ask a question, or whatever - let us know and we'll try to either blog, write, or call as soon as possible.
3) Be patient with us as we try to learn about this blog stuff - we don't really know what we're doing! If you have any tips for us, we'd be interested in hearing them.

Thanks, God bless you, and we hope to be in touch more in the future!

Love,

Jay and Vikki