Thankfulness

I think one of my biggest "worries" with moving overseas was the idea of being away for holidays. So with Thanksgiving approaching, I knew we had to make the most of it so we corralled some of our friends to make a feast together. 

Thanksgiving CLEARLY isn't Thanksgiving without a Turkey.... so we did what it took to get one. Ashlei told us about one man who sells them in the city so Adam and a few others went on a search to find him and were successful. They found a 14lb. turkey imported from Utah! While most things are somewhat cheap here- imported turkeys aren't. This guy was $50! But again worth it- and when shared between 6 people, the cost isn't too painful. 

Cooking the turkey was definitely a risk with what we had to work with. Since Adam cooked one in America last year, he took charge on getting this bird ready. 

Cooking a 14 lb turkey in a normal oven isn't too big of a deal.... 

but we weren't so sure that he (the turkey) was going to fit so well in here.... 

After shoving some veggies, an onion, and an orange up the poor guys rear, he dumped more veggies into the oven bag....

Sealed it up

And what do you know!? It worked! Here it is cooking away in our tiny oven! 

I'm pretty sure if it were any bigger, it wouldn't have fit and this was the smallest the man selling them had... we were pretty thankful. 

Creating everything from scratch doesn't always make things as tasty as you might like- like my green bean casserole. I tried to get creative with making the fried onions with onions and flour. I didn't have any eggs and I didn't have enough time to go to the market to get some, so I crossed my fingers that they would still fry in the oil without the flour coming off....

.....but they didn't. They ended up just greasy somewhat cooked onions. They did make the casserole pretty though! 

I am pretty thankful that Campbell's has taken up stock on this side of the world, and canned "cream of ___" soups can be found at times. 

So we did have cream of mushroom soup. 

Here it is before cooking....

It really just wasn't the same without canned french cut green beans and fried onions though. 

Ryan made both of these AMAZING rolls from scratch. I'm pretty impressed. 

Here's the spread! 

Mashed Potatoes, squash, stuffing (that Joseph made from scratch and was by far the best I've ever had), gravy, turkey, green bean casserole, rolls, sweet potatoes, corn, and cranberries of corse. 

There was no shortage of food here! 

For dessert we had Joseph's homemade pumpkin pie, Ryan's homemade pumpkin crisp, Janessa's homemade fudge, and Hannah's homemade ambrosia. Pretty impressive! 

This was all that was left of the turkey when all was said and done.... Then this was boiled for the broth to have soup in the future. We definitely put this guy to good use! 

I hope you had a WONDERFUL thanksgiving filled with love & gratitude!

Joyfully full,

Homemade Applesauce

I really love applesauce- but like most things, I'm lame and only like the jarred or individual snack pack kind... basically runny with no chunks. Therefore, I've never been a big fan of homemade applesauce and just thought I wouldn't eat any while I lived here. 

Until I ate Ashlei's of course. It's so easy to make delicious not chunky SWEET applesauce. 

Buy 10 apples (the cheapest ones you can find- they're going to end up mush anyway). 

Peel them, core them (isn't my green IKEA apple slicer fun?), and then cut them into small pieces. 

Combine them in the crock pot 

with 1/2 c water and 3/4 c sugar. 

You can also add a little cinnamon if you want (and by a little I mean a little, Adam made a batch so cinnamon-y that it was painful to eat). I prefer it without it. 

Cook for 5 hours on low. 

When it has finished cooking, stir until well blended, then put a some of the apples and liquid from the crock pot into the blender. It takes me about 3 or 4 blender-fulls to do it all. Make sure to evenly separate the liquid into small proportions or one batch will be a lot more runny than the others. 

AND then store in small containers that can be frozen (like these little ones from IKEA). I put one in the fridge and when I finish it, I just get another one out of the freezer and let it thaw. It's also pretty tasty semi-frozen. 

Please do try it out yourself- you'll never purchase the over-priced stuff again! 

Joyfully sweetened,

A Few of my Favorite Things Friday {Nov. 19}

2 weekends ago, Adam went to another city for a few days and all of our other guy friends were gone as well. That left me with girl friends for a GIRL'S WEEKEND! Which is one big favorite thing with lots of other favorite things with it.....

Fave #1......Ping Guo Ji Ding (Apple Chicken)

By far my favorite place to eat. We call it Apple Chicken- not real sure what it's really called. It is in an apartment (very common here- people rent an apartment, live in one small room, and have their restaurant or business in the rest of it) with such great food. You know how you have your "default" restaurant where you always go when either you can't decide where to eat or nothing else sounds good and you always get the same thing? In Nashville- Pei Wei & Mandarin Kung Pao chicken; In Lexington it was Applebees and the Oriental Chicken salad (I'm seeing a trend here...). Here, it is Ping Guo Ji Ding. They make all of their dishes on top of rice in a clay pot. So tasty. 

Here's Hannah eating that actual dish "Ping Guo Ji Ding". 

And here is my very favorite- Gong Bao Ji Ding - Bu La (no spicy stuff please). There is rice at the bottom of the clay pot with cut up cucumber or zucchini, potato, a little bit of cabbage, and cut up pieces of WHITE chicken MEAT (hard to come bye) on top.

I'm now realizing how ironic it is that it is my "go to" dish here, as my Nashville dish- "Mandarin Kung Pao Chicken" WHICH happens to be the America version of Gong Bao Ji Ding. Get it Kung Pao- Gong Bao? 

We all keep wondering when we will get sick of it- not there yet! 

Fave #2.....Cheese!

Oh sweet cheese how we love you. 

I think that cheese is the one thing that is absolutely absent from the East Asian diet. However, it is a staple in my diet. It'd be real sad if I had no access whatsoever to it. But hallelujah WalMart always come through (that's not entirely true...), and on most days they have some kind of cheese. Land o' Lakes sells American singles, and depending on the day has a small block of yellow cheddar, mozzarella, or on this glorious day- Colby Jack!!! Yum. The section may be small- the 2 middle shelves seen here in these 2 square feet- but it is big enough to brighten our days! 

Fave #3....... Beautiful Blue Sky Days 

This country isn't known for clear, clean air, and the area in which we live typically sees more rain and clouds than blue sky and sun. However, we've been extremely blessed with amazing weather lately. It has felt like fall and sometimes even better. The weather was so beautiful this day. It was (in Eve's words) a "no temperature" day with clear blue skies. You aren't hot or cold it's just perfect.

Here we are in the city- we live in the "village"(far stretch, really a district of a few hundred thousand people) outside of town. 

Wal-Mart is underneath us- it is underground in this park/plaza and the entrance and exit (in the left of the picture behind us) are glass pyramids that look like the louvre. Pretty funny. 

Can't get enough days like these. 

Fave #4......... These crazy ladies....

The weekend ended with a late Halloween party that the foreign students organized on campus. I was a party pooper and didn't go, but these 2 jumped right in on the fun. Aren't they good look Grannies? I think they did pretty well creating their costumes with limited resources.

ALWAYS a good time with these 2! 

I've always loved time with girls, but since being married (which is clearly the delight of my life), I love when I get a good weekend with just girls, especially when you get to have a slumber party. They both spent 3 nights in a row with me. The 1st night we all 3 tried to sleep in the same bed, but poor Hannah moved to the guest bed in the middle of the night.

Thanks for a fun weekend friends!

Joyfully embracing time with girls,

With Love from America

I was so blessed by a visit from this wonderful friend last week! Jeanette came to stay with us as she was passing through and blessed me with all of these fun things from home!!!

Thank you SO much J for bringing it, KATE thanks SO much for buying a lot of it, and thanks to Sarah B who did an amazing job picking out some craft supplies specifically for different things she found on other blogs. She also sent me the program from our friend Brooke's sweet baby Briar's celebration service- such a thoughtful blessing Sarah! THANK YOU! 

THEN a few days later, this package of goodies arrived here from my wonderful Mommy! 

Some of my most favorite things! 

When we still lived in America, I LOVED assembling care packages for friends who live overseas. Now that I'm here myself, I so enjoy getting them! It REALLY is like Christmas! 

Joyfully loved from home, 

A Few of my Favorite Things Friday {Nov.12}

Ok 3rd times a charm right? Here are my favorite things from our trip 3 weeks ago.

Like I said, we went to another city- a much bigger, much nicer city- to see some friends.... which was so wonderful. This city is so ridiculously large....

This is looking out over just one little part of the city.... it keeps going on and on and on for miles with large skyscrapers and 34 million people. large.  

Our city has almost NOTHING as far as western restaurants or stores go- only Papa Johns, Pizza Hut, KFC, DQ and WalMart.... not complaining- so grateful for those. BUT there are a lot of REALLY big cities in this large country with nice western amenities... which I had the joy of enjoying with fun friends.....

So a few of my favorite things this week are.....

Fave #1 AND #2 ...... Starbucks AND these WONDERFUL friends!

I love these ladies and so love any time that I get to spend with them....

Anna B, Kristy, andAnna Mo have become some of my favorite ladies ever. Never a dull moment. 

I also love carmel mochas and banana bread......

so yum. just like home. seriously. 

This is Anna Mo..... 

She's definitely one of my faves :) 

Fave #3......SEPHORA!

I love Sephora in America, so I was pretty pumped to find it in this city. Even the people who live there were really surprised when they recently got it. The downside was that the prices were SO high- some things were reasonable- mostly the things that were specifically made for Sephora; but for instance- Clinique foundation.... around $50! no thanks I'll have someone mail it to me from home. But I did buy a small bottle of nail polish and a small compact of eye shadow.......

......And just enjoyed being in the store.

So finally- those are my faves in that fun city. 

I'm coming out of my blog slump and have fun things to share.... and our internet has magically gotten significantly better in the last 3 days. ptbg.

Joyfully enjoying the "finer" things, 

A Few of my Favorite Things Friday {Nov.5}

It's Saturday morning and I'm laying in my bed where I've been for the last hour and a half... am I sick, nope.... I'm home alone with nothing else to do! {clearly, our internet is back up and running} Adam left me here by myself at 6 this morning to go to another city for a few days. So there is no one here to judge me for laying in (my warm) bed with the computer for a few hours after I wake up {I'm sure my sweet husband doesn't judge me since he just moves to the couch with the computer to watch TV on the sling box on Saturday mornings} I love morning like this. Nothing to do for a while, no one to see so no need to make myself look somewhat presentable. ahhhh.

It is Saturday morning, but there are 3 more hours of Friday left in America, so we'll pretend that it's still Friday. I said I'd share my fun things from the our trip to another city a few weekends ago- well when I went to go get the camera from the office to attempt to upload pictures again, I realized Adam took it with him. bummer. next week. for sure.

So today will just be one of my favorite things....

Local Coffee Shops...

There are a few really fun coffee shops around here, and while they aren't as "upscale" as most in the states (you might be sitting behind a table full of people smoking, and sometimes they smell funny)- they are still a nice treat, and fun place to go with friends.

I don't have a picture of my favorite place that is right around the corner from my apartment {and I have no desire to go take one} but they have the best mochas. I might venture to say better than starbucks- I find myself tempted to order another one when I've finished the first. The price is actually about the same as a coffee at starbucks, but for here it's really expensive so I've yet to buy more than one at a time.

This cute place just opened a month or so ago, so it still seems "clean" {nice and "clean" don't exactly go hand-in- hand here}. My friend Janessa LOVES their mochas and insisted we go with her one night to try one. It was okay....

It looks like a glorified hot-chocolate milkshake- and kind of tastes like one too. Nevertheless, its a fun place to go with friends.

I took this picture before writing my last post on Monday (with my old camera that is not with Adam in another city) . This coffee shop on campus can be like a "haven" compared to the world outside. It's funny- you have to walk through the crazy loud {not at all like an American} cafeteria, to go upstairs to walk through a really loud smokey cafeteria/restaurant and then you open the door to this place and it's like another world. Quiet, clean, good American music, full of ikea furniture and decor, free wireless, never crowded, a few western foods on their menu, so nice.

This is their latte -it's pretty before you stir things into it- but not so wonderful tasting- but its most definitely worth it for the atmosphere in contrast to everyday life here.

Thats all for today. Sorry... a little lame I know. I'm off to the city with the girls! Need a few things at Wal-Mart (wish me luck!) and back to the fabric market again to get fabric to recover a wonderful old chair Hannah found, and to find as many crafty supplies I can to being working on Christmas decorations! Don't judge...... I need a head start here.....

Joyfully caffeinated,

One of those weeks.....

For the first time... maybe ever.... I have been looking forward to Monday. I usually dread them. But this week I was waiting for my opportunity for a fresh start on a new week. Its a funny thought- why on Thursday did I feel like I needed to trow in the towel on last week and wait until today to get out of a rut? I don't know. I do that- "resolve" to start over on Monday, next month, in January.... Good thing today is Monday AND November 1st. Double the mysterious source of productivity.

Anyway, last week was just one of those weeks- you're off, you feel unproductive no matter how hard you try, you feel like you are inefficient at everything you do, you feel a step behind.... and so on and so forth. That was my week last week. Then add the fact that we went a day without electricity (common occurrence) and I think our internet is broken (which we have no control over....) which didn't help the inefficiency. AND we went to another city last weekend- and took a bus to get there- we didn't get home until late on Sunday  night, making Monday a bust. When my Mondays are off, the whole week tends to be off. I could go into many reasons about idols, control, and a myriad of other things that infiltrate my heart, and leave me throwing in the towel but this isn't the place. Last week was off. We'll leave it at that.

So here I am on Monday afternoon, sitting in a coffee shop on campus, drinking a latte and eating fruit salad (with some strange peach colored topping on it) and french fries, ready to do what I need to do to plan my week well with a long list of stuff in front of me. My mind resists this- it'd be easier to sit here in paralysis and do nothing, to go on and just get through the week. I'd like to think my super strong (hardly) will power will kick start my efforts- but I'd be deceived. So I'll go cling to BG for motivation, with the hope of thriving through the week.

I missed my first few of my favorite things Fridays- but not because I didn't try. I can't get my pictures to upload to my computer and as I said, the internet is huai le (broken). Sad because I had some fun stuff from last weekend. I'll share them this Friday. OH and I (finally) finished a REEEEEALY fun project! I can't wait to share- whenever I can get my pictures onto my computer and the internet fixes itself (wishful thinking).

Oh and we had to tell this little guy bye yesterday :( Our good friends went back to America for 4 months- so happy for them, so sad for us!

Scanerio: Get new oven (old one in the floor behind me)- Grady plays in box, says, "HALEY GET IN BOX!" jumps in on top of me, grabs my face, says, "OPEN MOUTH!" and turns my face into his drum. I'm pretty sure he has used his extreme cuteness to turn us all into his puppets. We miss you already little guy! 

Okay here I go......

Joyfully motivated,