The Bible: A dummies guide to achieving cheerfulness.

Time in America was wonderful. Time spent with family was, as it always is, a blessing. Time was spent hugging, recapping our lives over the past 5 months, laughing, putting together a ridiculous 2,000 piece puzzle, dancing games, board games, more hugs, a lot more laughing, building basement rooms, putting up decorations for Christmas, dinners, eating lots of candy, football games, massages, movies, taking down Christmas decorations, New Year, even more laughing, fondue pots, more puzzles, sleepovers, high school basketball games, making flubber with 30+ Kindergartners, and then laughing a little more.

Though all of that (and lots more that wasn't mentioned.) was wonderful, the best part of it all was simply enjoying each others' presence and being in the same hemisphere, the same country, the same state, the same city, the same home. You don't realize how far away you are until you travel for 26 hours by car, train, and plane to be in the same room.

Unfortunately time ran out. Its amazing how 3 weeks worth of time turns into a fragment of a blink.

Now here we are 26 hours back away and that was a hard hit for my little heart to take. I've been finding myself counting down to the summer but also severely discontent with doing that...whats the point of just suffering through with a mopey attitude? Fortunately... there is hope.

I was reading today and God spoke to me through Proverbs 15:15
He said-

"Leslie all the day's of the afflicted are evil, but the cheerful of heart has a continual feast."

If we walk around feeling afflicted, we are. If we go through our days playing the victim of God's will, we will be.  If I walk around feeling cheated of time with family, I am.

Attitude, attitude, attitude my friends. Its all about our attitude. Yes, we will be afflicted,  there never has been a promise of affliction's absence...but if we look at affliction with a fighting cheerful heart, we will grow.

Yes, God has a will for each of our lives, and with that will comes a lot of "Whys?"...but if we look at God's plan for us with a curious cheerful heart, His will is an exciting journey that comes with a treasure map.

And if I look at the time away from my family with a thankful, cheerful heart filled with memories, an insurmountable amount of love, and prayers...I can be more content about the time I do have rather than bitter about the distance.

"-a cheerful heart has a continual feast"

God never says "sorry, but you are stuck in affliction so all your days will be evil"  Friends, we have a CHOICE. Cheerful is a choice... Affliction or feast. Not just any feast but a CONTINUAL one! A continual feast over affliction...yes please!!

This has been an uplifting discovery this morning for me so I'm urging you to keep this verse close to all of your cheerful hearts as we all muddle through the afflictions that this world shoves in our faces....And choose to be blessed, choose to be cheerful!!

Good morning to you too.

Normally when Josh wakes up he waits patiently for me to wake up too, or snuggles up to me and accidentley-on-purpose wakes me up.Normally he also gives me a kiss and says "Good morning sweetie!"

This morning things went a little differently...

This morning Josh woke up, rolled over, looked at me and said "Leslie....Leslie.....LESLIE!" I finally answered with a groggy half sleeping/half awake growl "mmmhh."

He looked at me and asked "Do you know what I really like?" I was sleepily confused (that's the worst kind.) Without hardly waiting for an answer he said "bacon." Then rolled over and went back to sleep.

I would really have liked to know what he was dreaming about.

No shame.

"What is today?" I asked. "Today is I'm crazy today" he answered. "No, Tuesday, today is Tuesday." Within 5 minutes the boys were crawling around on the floor, running outside and back in, pouring water on the floor, screaming at the top of their lungs, and flickering the lights. It was going to be a rough class. Today was not the day for sit down and work learning. I pick my battles.

I decided "answer the question tag" would be the solution to all our problems. They practice their English, I don't have to try to control the little beasts, and we all get some good exercise. They run around like mad men and Josh and I run after them. When tagged they have to freeze and answer a question before they were set free. It sucks the energy right out of them.

So there we were, playing tag, practicing English, and having a blast when I tagged one of the boys. He froze and I asked him "What colors do you like?" He looked at me and paused a moment, it was then that he pulled down his pants, whipped out his little p.p. and took a pee right in front of me.

I guess that means "yellow."

I'm not posting any pictures because not only would it be inappropriate, but also the only one I have is in my mind. And I can't get rid of it.

Christmas vacation can't get her fast enough.

Gift for two.

Last week, Josh, ever so sweetly, bought me a bunch of my favorite flowers to celebrate our 11 month wedding anniversary...I'm loving this "monthaversary" thing! He met me at the gate of the kindergarten, flowers in hand and kiss waiting...the perfect end to my work day. He is so romantic!

We got back to the apartment and the flowers were placed in a vase on top of the desk so that I could admire and smell them for many days to come.

Now, I know many people do not appreciate carnations, I've even heard some venture to claim that they are "ugly," however, I believe such people couldn't be more wrong. I think they are the most beautiful flowers in all the world.

Carnations are little explosions of fun and vibrant colors that you can't find in most other types of flowers. Not only is it the colors which make them unique but also the fact that there is never any rhyme or reason to how the petals grow, which gives them their spontaneous glamor.

Carnations have been my favorite ever since I can remember. They are also one of the cheapest flowers on the market. For this reason, both Josh and I are thankful. It means both less money spent, and flowers bought more frequently...win win for sure. I just never thought he would find them on the other side of the world. From what I hear it took a little extra effort to track them down...but my man delivers!

So the next day, I was sitting at the desk working on the computer and admiring my beautiful gift when I had a little rabbit jump into my lap wanting some love from his mother. Nothing new...he does that often. I pet him, lovingly, and was not surprised when my adventurous Brigsby jumped up onto the desk, which is something we are still unsuccessfully training him not to do. Before I could grab him he hopped right over to my flowers and was smelling them. For a brief second I thought to myself, "How cute! My bunny loves the smell of carnations too!" But before I could realize that this was an absolutely preposterous idea, my thought process was interrupted by a huge "MUNCH" from Brigsby...

I guess Brigsby does love Carnations as much as I do, just not quite in the same way. Result: Relocation of the flower vase, a frantic rabbit who still is spending hours on end trying to get back to the place where he found his special treat, and a gift that keeps on giving...

You see, I always hated throwing away the flowers once they started to wilt, now I have a little flower disposal who does the job gladly.

Sweatpants.

You know that stage you go through right around middle school where you really want to look cute everyday for school? Wanting the cutest clothes, trying makeup for the first time, and waking up extra early every morning to fix your hair. I went through that stage for sure, but then I realized that no matter how hard I tried I still felt self conscious about how I looked every day, ducking into the bathroom every chance I got to make sure everything was in place and usually pulling my hair back because it looked just too frizzy.

I was never by any sort of a long shot the "cool/beautiful/popular" girl at school, and to be honest, I didn't really envy those girls because I had a taste of how much pressure it was to keep up your image...It was right around my freshman year when sports began getting really busy that I started choosing that extra hour of sleep over the vain struggle to be seen as "so pretty." It was then that the sweatpants ruled the closet. God began teaching me that He doesn't see me for my "adorning" on the outside, but the condition of my heart, so then I began wearing those sweatpants with my head held high...

The only problem was that Satan likes to attack a young girl's fears and I was constantly fearing that God was the only one who would see me for more than a sports girl, and that no boy would want a girl who never looked cute at school...and who never had time because of her countless practices.

There were a couple of heartaches in high school that maybe went unnoticed but God taught me through and showed me the perfect love that I was so desperately looking for, and I count myself blessed for it, not many people are given the opportunity to experience God to that magnitude in high school.  

Then college. The only people I had time for was my team. It was okay though, I loved them, these incredible girls that became my sisters. They understood. Everywhere I went I was with at least a couple of my teammates by my side representing the sweatpants right along with me. We cherished the times we had when we actually had enough time to try to look like girls.

I still struggled with the thought of never finding that guy who could appreciate me and my sweatpants.

Then junior year of college came along, and with that came Josh. He tells me now that he remembers me as the "pretty volleyball player who was really busy." We became good friends and after a little bit of hesitation on his part, 5 months to be exact, he decided that my busy schedule wasn't enough to keep me away.

Josh, who happens to be the most extraordinary person I have ever met, very quickly became my best friend, the best friend most people hope to find in their lifetime. Today I can say that I have been married, for almost a year, to the man who saw through the "volleyball player" and miraculously came to love me.

The other day I walked out of the room and, unknowing of any of my past sweatpants insecurities, Josh said innocently and surprised..."Hey, sweetie, you are wearing sweats! You haven't worn them in so long! I love it, I've always thought you look so beautiful in them." 

Thank you God. You really did have the perfect man waiting for me and my sweatpants.  

Mom is always right.

I remember being little and standing in our linoleum floored kitchen over a freshly spilled cup of milk, and how my little brain remembered that mom had just mopped the day before. I quickly wiped up the crime scene and was somewhat devastated when I found that the floor was sticky. Mom came in and saw the evidence of my destruction and said with a smile and a roll of her eyes... "It never fails you mop and something gets spilled." She never was angry about how talented we kids were at ruining her freshly cleaned masterpiece, she just would "shoo" us out of the kitchen and try again.

Now I have a floor of my own that I like to try to keep clean. Saturday I mopped. I mopped real nice. Here in China its almost impossible to keep a floor looking somewhat clean, I sweep 3 times a day and get disgusting piles of dirt and dust every time, but I have to tell you our floor was lookin' good! We were expecting a group of people the next morning for our "gathering" and I wanted the place to look presentable for them. Mission accomplished. Last thing on the agenda was making the Kool-Aid. Now, because water over here is a little sketchy you have to boil it first...so I made a batch of scalding hot black cherry goodness and was extra careful in transporting the pitcher over to the tiny fridge, all the while keeping mom's words of warning in the back of my head...I WOULD NOT LET IT HAPPEN!!

I placed the pitcher down and closed the refrigerator door...success. I felt like I had really accomplished a great victory. Place was clean, food was ready, and Kool-Aid was in route to becoming a cool refreshing beverage for our guests.

Then it was Sunday, game time. 5 minutes in I had a thirsty visitor who decided she wanted some of that irresistible Kool-Aid. Problem: parents were occupied otherwise and the pitcher was almost as big as she. Bigger problem: none of that could stop her. She was determined....Minor misjudgment by the 4 year old that resulted in a major fail. That pitcher took a nasty spill. Literally. Refreshment gone, clean floor tarnished, little girl still thirsty.

As I crouched over the black cherry casualty sopping it up with a towel, (good thing floors are tile!) her mom came over with a quick "I don't know what she was thinking, I'm sorry." My insides began crying as I thought about how sticky my flawless floor would now be, it was then that I thought back to the day when I honestly believed that I could pour that gallon milk jug on my own, I gave an involuntary and subtle laugh as I said, "Oh no problem, it happens."

Then she said lightheartedly, "I guess it gives you a good reason to mop."

Bullets

If you've ever watched the infamous movie "Finding Nemo" I'm hoping that you are reading this next part while visualizing the little shrimp named Jacque, green algae around his mouth, stating with an adorable french accent...

"I am ashamed."

Things have been so busy around here, for the first time in about a month in a half, Josh and I had a day off on Monday...It was glorious. Even though its not an excuse...please forgive me for not keeping you up to date, I'm going to try my best to not let that happen again. Since there is WAY too much for me to catch you up on in story form, we are going to do this bullet style. Bullets in real life, like the ones that come from guns, are really fast. I think that may be why the ones on the computer are called bullets, because you can read through things really fast...maybe?! Hmm...food for thought.

Side note: here in China there is someone who thinks they are called dullets. I saw "Coaster than a speoding dullet" on a t-shirt. That is funny to me. Ok, side note over.

So lets get this dullet thing started:

• Josh locked our rabbit in the refrigerator (Thank you spell check, I can never spell that word right). After about 45 minutes of looking we found a terrified and very cold eared bunny behind the drawer. 
• We went on a day and a half vacation to Xiamen with the "team" and did some sight seeing. Then ate at a Mexican Restaurant (another word I can't spell on my own). Not authentic Mexican, but not bad for being 1/2 way around the world. 
• Josh and I went to a Jazz Concert put on by the Fuzhou Orchestra with a college group from Germany. It was pretty awesome!
• Josh's stomach was poisoned by some Japanese meat...It was a ugly 24 hours. To this day the poor guy can't even think about eating Japanese.
• I have had a cold for going on 4 weeks now...Chinese sicknesses are weird.
• We have received 2 cards, one small package, and one big ol' care package. Robin, Josh's family, Matthew and Rachael, and Nate and Lacy. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! All of these things came when Josh and I really needed a pick me up. It was such a blessing no matter how big or small your gift was! Family and Friends like you, we are so lucky to have. We love you all!
• The principal at the kindergarten asked me to dress up and come to their Halloween party at the park. So I walked through the crowds of China dressed as a chunky Jack-o-lantern. As if the foreigners don't get stared at enough, lets throw in a costume. 
• Josh and I taught my two little boys how to carve a Jack-o-lantern and for the first time ever, I had to tell the little kids not to eat the pumpkin top. Then a week later I had to tell an adorable girl to put away her chicken foot and not eat it during class... Sometimes I just can't handle China.
• Roger, our good friend, took us to an indoor swimming pool, which really was a pool that was located under an aluminum shack (like the military looking ones with the arched top) and rain water leaked on our heads. and there were so many old people swimming that it looked like a crammed fish tank. and they all wear speedos. and they swim extremely slow. and they like to halk up loogies on the side of the pool. Needless to say, good experience but  I am never going back.
• As I walked into the locker room of said swimming pool, I was greeted with an army of very old and very naked Chinese women. An image I'm still trying to erase. Plus they like to stare... It was like those nightmares you have when you are standing in the middle of somewhere busy and everyone is staring at you and you look down and you are naked. You know that feeling of sheer panic that attacks you enough to wake you up....It was like that, but there was no waking up.
• I believe that I've found the cutest little girl in China....her name is Yue Yue and I tutor her every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. There will be a post devoted to this precious girl coming soon. If she didn't have parents, I would adopt her. Adorable. 
• Josh and I went to this hiking site with Roger and his friend Dwight. On the way there Dwight drove (he is 27 and just now learning)...After he rolled backwards into a bus and nearly hit a man walking across the street, he killed that car about 20 times going up the mountain, and that is NOT an exaggeration. Josh and I sat in the  back seat crying because we were trying so hard not to laugh.
• This girl named Dayu moved to town, she is our age but like 10 times cooler. I love her. There will be a story about her as well.
• I got on a bus and the driver man asked me "Where are you going?" But he spoke so quickly I mistranslated and told him "America." He gave me a very strange look...I guess his bus doesn't make that stop.
• Brigsby is so big now and absolutley crazy. His favorite thing to do now-a-days is take off in a dead sprint and jump from about 3 feet away into the trashcan...I'm telling you, he's crazy. I think he's part squirrel.
• There was a wedding a few weeks back and Josh and I woke up at about 7:30 to extremely loud fireworks right outside our window. No joke, right outside...smoke from the explosion was coming into our window...I woke up absolutley terrorized (It sounded like machine guns). Josh had to contain me because I was flailing around wildly. As soon as it sunk in, I bawled my eyes out. I hate being scared. Bad start to the day. :)
• Josh and I had to leave China for our visas to renew, so we took about a 3 hour trip to the island of Jin Mun which is a territory of Taiwan. It was BEAUTIFUL! The area was clean, the air was clear and the drivers were not crazy. We love Taiwan. Plus...we found a 7-11. I almost cried. So we walked in and bought "da" (big) coke Slurpees. They didn't have banana, but I'm not even going to complain.The only thing that would have been more miraculous is if there would have been a Goodcents next door. 
• While we were visiting Jin Mun, Josh and I rented bicycles for free. It was perfect! The only problem was that they were Chinese sized. We looked like giants on those things and it lead to some sore legs and backs the following day, but it was worth it!
• I suffered possibly a very minor concussion after smacking my head on a counter top and it was brutal. I thought that would stop after sports stopped...I guess I was wrong. Josh got a kick of my loopiness and still teases me about seeing an "UBARU!"
• We celebrated Thanksgiving at three different parties and it was glorious. Although there was no turkey, there was ham and fried chicken...not a bad substitute. Plus it gave me a chance to practice on my homemade apple pie making. Its so fun!
• We also skyped with both of our families and it was ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL because it got us SO excited to see them in 3 weeks!! Yippe!

So I think that pretty much gets you all caught up on the past month...the rest that happened wasn't super exciting...just same ol' same ol'.

Friends, I realize that November was a flop for the "Life Less Ordinary" blog but here's to a bright December filled with lots of entries and happy times. Love you all...I'll be back tomorrow!

P.S. For pictures from our November adventures, it will take several hours less if I just post them on Facebook. The internet is too slow to put them on this post. And my patience is far too small. So look there. :)