Welcome Home From China & Bali

I had such a restless night’s sleep last night.  I couldn’t got to sleep and then when I finally did, I kept waking up.  I was excited about my lesson and I had a list of things I had to make sure I didn’t forget, so it made for a rough night’s sleep.

My lesson about the Ten Lepers went really well.  All week I had been thinking about what I wanted to do for my lesson b/c I know they all know the story and there’s only a few verses about what happened so it was going to be hard to fill the whole 50 minutes.  So, I bought two packs of 10 cards for just a $1 each at the Target $1 Spot and after we had the lesson, I had all the kids take one and write a thank you note to someone.  I told them they could write it to whoever they wanted but it had to start with, “Dear _______, It is such a treat to… (be your daughter, know you, etc).  Most of the kids did it, except for a few boys who were being silly.  Then at the very end of class I told them I had a treat for them.  I gave them each a bag w/ 2 of my homemade chocolate chip cookies.  I told them that they could either eat the cookies themselves or give the cookies away (hence the “treat” part of the note) w/ the thank you card they wrote.  Then what I’m going to do next Sunday is ask them who ate their cookies and who gave them away.  If they gave their cookies away, I’m going to bring a big candy bar to show that giving is better than receiving and how important it is to show gratitude.

I didn’t expect any of the kids to give me a thank you note, but one girl in the class did and it made my whole day.  It said, “Dear Sister Johnson, It is such a treat to have you as a teacher, because you make the lessons fun.  Thank you for listening to me.  I love you!”

Anyways, after church we rushed home and changed shoes (for some reason we both wanted to stay in our dresses today) and then went over to Mom & Dad’s house and had mac & cheese for lunch.  The kids went off to play w/ Legos in the back room and Lexie & I watched Fried Green Tomatoes b/c it was only $5 at WalMart the other day and Lexie had never seen it.  We love TAWANDA!  I also did a load of laundry b/c all that Mom asked before they left was that she could come home to clean sheets.

The kids kept coming in and asking if it was time to go get Papa & Mimi from the airport yet.  It was finally time to go and the kids were so excited and giddy that they could hardly stand it.  We sang songs all the way out to the airport and then parked and went inside to wait for Papa & Mimi.  We didn’t have to wait very long and Dad came out first and the kids ran over to give him a huge hug.

Then Mimi came out a few minutes after that (she had to stop and use the bathroom) and the kids got to run over to her and give her hugs.  They were so happy to have their Papa & Mimi home safe and sound (and so was I).

Here’s the happy crew.

While the boys went to get the luggage, Mom got into her carry on to get Autumn her present.  Mom had told me when she called from Bali to check in that they had gotten a “Mulan dress” for Autumn & I had slipped up and told Autumn about it and that’s all she could talk about for a few days so I told Mom when she called yesterday that she should probably bring it in her carry on b/c Autumn would most likely ask about it as soon as she saw them…and she did.  So, Mimi was prepared and was able to get it out when Autumn asked about it.

They also got her this cute wrap-around shirt from Bali.  We got the luggage and then headed for home.  It was a tight fit in the back seat of the Cadillac b/c we had both car seats and I had planned on sitting back there w/ the kids but Mom & Dad didn’t have their driver’s licenses so I had to drive home and Dad got stuck sitting in the back w/ the kids.  Both kids fell asleep on the drive home b/c I think all the excitement and adrenaline of waiting for Papa & Mimi to get home had worn off.

Mom & Dad got this cute bali shirt and short set for Andrew and of course Autumn wanted to try on her Mulan dress right away.  We had creamy crock pot chicken for lunch with manly jello.  Mom was so excited to have ice in her drink, b/c she said they were only able to find one cold drink during their whole 3 week trip.

After lunch, it was time for more presents.  They brought home these cool visors for the kids.  They said a lot of the kids in China were wearing them.  they have a fan on the front along w/ a little button that you pull down that brings down the sunglasses (like Andrew is demonstrating).  The kids thought they were awesome and wore them around the house all afternoon.  Mom & Dad got Lexie & I a jade necklace w/ the symbol for happiness.  We also got a cool scarf, replicas of the terra cotta warriors, chopsticks, and the best smelling soap.

Autumn asked about 30 times if they could go out in the garden and pick vegetables.  Dad finally said they could and of course the kids had to wear their visors.  As you can see in the bucket, the tomatoes are finally starting to ripen.  We’ve had big green tomatoes on the vines for about 2 weeks and I’m glad they didn’t ripen until Mom & Dad got home to enjoy them.

After all the fun and excitement was over, we just relaxed for the rest of the evening and watched some TV.  Mom & I are obsessed w/ Lexie’s cute pregnant belly and kept putting our hands on her belly to see if we could feel the baby move.  We did a few times and that was so fun.  I took Dad’s camera and put the pictures on the computer.  I am proud of him, b/c he took over 4,000 pictures in just 3 weeks!  It was fun to look through the pictures and see all the neat adventures they had on their trip.  I finally had to take Autumn home so we could go to bed.  It will be so nice to have things back to normal now that Mom & Dad are home.