An American Girl in a Chinese World

You know what happens when you are riding the scooter and it starts raining: You get wet! Unless you are Chinese and are prepared, and get out your handy bike poncho, we now have two!

This was in the making for over 1oo days! The plan came into being when we were asked if we could watch the Cheely girls one night while their parents when on a weekend get away. As I thought about it, I thought it would be fun to ask if Amelia, the Merwin’s 4 year old little girl, if see would like to join us for a girls night. Andy asked in May to ensure we would have time available and left open in September. Amelia had her bags packed May 10th. She was ready, we did our best to help her understand just how far away this night was, but she insisted saying “I just want to make sure I have everything and don’t forget it!” We made a list of all we were to do:  Paint nails  Princess movie  Brownies and sausage were a must  Hide N Seek  Fixing hair  And don’t forget a stuffed animal!  It was a success! The girls had fun while Jeremy locked himself in the office ☺

(Loud hammer) “ Tama, can you find a toggle bolt?”  (high pitch drill) “Jeremy, what is a toggle bolt?” (Screws falling) “ Never mind, can you hand me the saw?” This summer while we spent time with family in Florida we were introduced to a new HGTV TV show, “Property Brothers”. We decided to take that show on the road, rename it and get some cooler hosts. Introducing “Property Couple” China style.             Moving in to our new place I was most excited to set up our new kitchen. To our surprise we couldn’t store any of our food or supplies in the cabinets unless we wanted to cook with and eat mold. After a few weeks of trying to get by with what we had, we finally came to the conclusion that we no longer wanted to be afraid of our kitchen or smell the mold any longer. With some measurements, a trip to IKEA, and a hunky carpenter our new kitchen was in the making. First step: Demolition. As I expected we knocked out the cabinets, pulled the counter tops, sink