Happy New Year!!

Well, it was another early morning here yesterday. We were all awake at 3:30 a.m. So more cleaning and unpacking. The girls did take naps though, so that helped. We met our new driver, Mr. Yu. He seems nice but a little nervous. He was great about helping to get the girls in and out of the van.
We had lunch at Johnny Moos. A great diner that promised burger, fries, and milkshakes. And it delivered. Morgan loved it!! As you can see, she ordered a milkshake that was big enough for the entire family to share. We met a woman and her young son (7) there. They too have just moved here, from Nashville of all places. We talked with them and gave them our family card with contact information. She and her husband have their own business and have just moved here to be closer to customers.

After lunch we headed to the Pearl Market looking for tennis shoes. I wasn't so sure about this, but Mark insisted that I could get name brand tennis shoes at the market. And sure enough, I did. I was able to purchase new Nike tennis shoes for about $20 (USD). We also purchased 4 dvds for a total (not each) of $3.50 (USD), including the NEW Bee Movie, Cars, Meet the Robinsons, and Tarzan. There are NO children's cable chanels here and the cartoons are all in Chinese.

Next we headed to City Market, a grocery store that caters to the expat community here. We spent a small fortune on foods that we can find in the US, including mac n' cheese, waffles, lunch meat, graham crackers. But for now, its worth the price.

We headed home. Molls was asleep and Mark needed to work, so I took Morgan to our indoor play area here. She had a ball and made a new friend, Isabelle.

We stayed in for a "fancy" New Year's Eve dinner of salad, mac n' cheese, and hot dogs. This was accompanied by fireworks. They started about 5:30 and kept going all night. We were all pretty tired and in bed by 8:45. Except Mark. He went out for a drink with a friend here who was leaving last night for Korea. He will be gone about a month.

So another successful day for us. Mark goes back to work on Wednesday, so that will be a real test for the girls. It will be interesting to see how we work out the driver situation. There will be some days that Mark will need the car during the day to go to meetings in other areas of the city. Which obviously means I'll be home on my own. Morgan starts school on Jan 14, and that is just one more thing to factor into it. We could walk to/from school and they also have transportation available (about a 5 min ride). So we have options.

Happy New Year! Best Wishes for a happy and healthy 2008!!