for my parents

i'm not trying to be insensitive if anyone actually did have damage this past week in virginia, but i saw this on facebook and thought it was hilarious and that my parents would too.

klein family pictures

celebrating klein family pictures for the last time in a long time :)

klein girls and momma.

laura, kathryn, and me.

4 generations.

gillian's first birthday

today gillian turned 1! kat and rusty threw a fun party for extended family on both sides completely with spaghetti and meatballs and cake for the babe. we took about 100 pictures i think. happy birthday, g-baby! we love you and have loved spending the summer with you!

grandpa john with gill

once she figured out how delicious frosting is.

clapping for herself.

sharing with her friends mandy and j.

rocking her birthday crown from aunt laura.

cake from nantucket cafe... yum.

everyone singing happy birthday. with mom and dad about to blow out birthday candles.

more entertained by clearing off the table than by opening presents.

like aunt, like niece.

her fave meal on her b-day.

trying out the cake.

jada's baby shower

last saturday i helped throw a baby shower for jada, jarred's younger sister. she is 27 weeks along, with their baby girl due nov 9th. we are sad that we won't get to meet our new niece hadleigh jane for quite a long time after she is born, but we have been blessed to get to celebrate with jada and jeremy this summer. here are some pics of the very pink celebration!

jada and jeremy with a gift from me. i'm shameless.

opening presents.

it's a girl cake!

eating and filling out the games.

more presents!

A little picture of traffic in our side of the world

This video is worth watching because it will give you a good picture of what it is like to drive on the other side of the world, that is east asia, that on the roads I drive on where this incident took place.

I won't explain it because the post under the video does a good job, but note that this is not an odd event on the roads where we are. Maybe we should have bought the Santana instead of the YoYo, they must have a much better brake and suspension package. Then we too could place pedestrians in serious danger 3 stories high.

wusuowei baby! wusuowei!

Home is where the bed is?

Last night Shelley and I had an appointment at Panera Bread and while we were there I ran into some of our family friends. He asked me the most refreshing question I had been asked in a long time: "I'm surprised you guys are still in town? When do you fly home?" The man is a P, and a good one at that, because his question revealed an understanding about our lives. When we are in America, we are with our families and in our home culture, but we are guests no matter where we go. We live out of suitcases. Right now, Shelley and I have all of our possessions that aren't packed not so neatly in suitcases scattered from Greenwood, South Carolina to Norfolk, Virginia. They wait as patiently as the family members who allow us the storage space for us to return from East Asia for good, to settle down. While that stuff is ours, and will one day make a home for us, right now our home is in East Asia, where people don't understand what we're saying, lanelines on roads are ignored, space is sparse, and spaghetti and hamburgers are an excursion. When I first landed in America, I went through this quiet identity crisis. I was back in Charlotte, North Carolina, the city where I was born, raised, and except for college, lived up until I flew overseas to East Asia. I hardly had to think about where I was driving, it was as if the car drove itself to where I wanted it to go everything was so familiar. Yet, for the first time, I had no home. The house I grew up in is now rented. My parents are in Greenwood, South Carolina, some 2 and a half hours away, and my sister and her husband are the last remaining residents, living in their apartment in Kannapolis, a 40 minute drive away. This all left me feeling very confused, and I think for the first time in my life, a little homeless. As the summer draws to a close, I am now feeling that that P's words were true- I am ready to go home.

This feeling of homelessness can best be explained by the number 13.5. That is the average number of beds that Shelley and I will have slept in by the time we leave to go back to our own bed (13 beds, but Shelley made an excursion to visit some friends, so she is at 14). We are so incredibly grateful to the Deans, O'Hares, Shelleys, Laura Klein, Eriksens, Paces, Pisgah National Forest, the Wyndham Great Smokies Resort, Renos, Jungs, Kleins, Kleins and Hulls (who offered us 2 different beds), and the McGhees for giving us a bed to sleep in, a niece to play with, open refridgerators, homecooked meals, workout space, and vacation time. We are so blessed to have family and friends to give so graciously to us as we invade your space for these short chunks of time. With that said, this to Chengdu to Beijing to Chicago to Durham to Charlotte to Asheville to Pigeon Forge to Charlotte to Greenwood to Charlotte to Durham to Norfolk to Corolla to Norfolk to Durham to Charlotte to Durham to Charlotte to Durham excursion is winding down. We have a week and a half left, and only three more bed switches until we fly back to this:

The fitted sheet doesn't fit and somehow pops up on the middle of the night exclusively on my side. The mattress... well there is no mattress, only the thickest piece of foam I could find and a feather topper that pricks me with feathers when said fitted sheet pops off the top corner of my side, the top comforter that is too small to hang over the bed but gently sits on top, exposing all of the layers of padding underneath, and the black dog that stubbornly sneaks up on the bed every night as we brush our teeth in the bathroom thinking to himself "is this the night they are finally going to give in and let me sleep up here?" now look more inviting than I could ever imagine. I just wish I could pack everyone from America up and take them with me.

Shelley and I have an overnight layover in the capital city on our way back. Our flight gets in at 11PM and there won't be any flight back to our city until the next morning. I asked her if she wanted to get a hotel for a few hours and she said "no, it doesn't make sense for that short of time." Now that I think about it, it really doesn't. I don't want to add another bed to the list, especially not a hotel bed. We'll do without, keep our stuff in our suitcases, and wait until we get back to our apartment where we can unpack it into dresser drawers, armoirs, closets, kitchen cabinets, and bathroom storage bins where it will stay for a lot longer. And then 8 uninterrupted nights in my own apartment before we travel again. I can't wait.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 27th Birthday to the greatest wife in the world!

Since she laments not being able to celebrate her birthday with the team in East Asia, we'll have to make due in America. And what does America have that East Asia doesn't? Great restaurants and family. So, Shelley will be celebrated today with a lunch at 411 West in Chapel Hill, followed by dinner tonight with Kathryn and Rusty at the Angus Barn in Raleigh.

I love her and hope this day is a lot of fun!