Another cold night

So we thought the heating problem was fixed yesterday when the electrician put in a new, bigger main breaker outside. How wrong we were. That became apparant at 1:30am when our noses turned to ice pops. So, a couple of times last night Mark got up, drove to the guard station at the entrance to our complex, showed his paper drawing of a lightbulb with a / across it, brought a guard with a key to unlock the outside breaker access, and trip the power back on. Poor guy couldn't catch a break! By this morning the power would not trip on for more than 2 seconds. I became a very squeaky wheel at that point. I was very polite, but crystal clear about what needed to happen. I want heat NOW! The same electrician showed up and just spent 2 hours checking everything in my house. It seems a light switch was fried and causing all the problems. It doesn't seem like that should ground the whole system, as opposed to just tripping the individual circuit, however, this is China and I am not an engineer, only married to one! Now I am waiting for the water heater to finish so I can take a long awaited shower. Oh, today is supposed to bring another round of snowstorms - wish us luck and say a prayer!

Home Again

We finally made it to our home around 9pm on Wed. night. Are we ever glad to be here. We stayed a total of 3 nights in Beijing, finally getting a flight out on Wed. at noon. The flight was delayed for only 30min. That was remarkable. The girls were so happy to see our driver, Mr. Brake, waiting for us at the airport in Nanjing. We finally got on the road around 3pm. The drive from Nanjing to our home in Yangzhou normally takes just under 2 hours. We arrived at our house at 9:15pm! And were very lucky. I don't know how we got through other than answered prayers. The expressways were completely shut down with drivers stalled anywhere from 22 hours to 5 days - in a car! Our driver took back roads. It was slow going, but we made it, thank the Lord. Walking in the front door, the house was freezing, literally. The heat was turned off while we were away. Our house is built out of concrete and marble/stone. There is no insulation, anywhere. Every room has an individual unit for a/c,heat and we cranked everyone up as high as it would go. An hour later the breaker tripped. It is not the one in the house, but the outside locked one that the management has to open. So, we finally get to our very chilly beds by 11 or so. At 4:30, when the girls woke up thanks to jetlag, it was still bone chilling cold. It hurt to move your head on the pillow because outside the outline of your face was cold. Our muscles cramped so bad because we wouldn't move from our warm spot. The girls were even spooning! Today the sun came out and it helped. Hopefully tomight will be better.

Back in China

Well, we made it to China! However, we can't get home. We are stuck in Beijing another day because the Nanjing airport is closed - not flights in or out at all! They are having a fierce snowstorm. At our home in Yangzhou, there is at least a foot of snow on the ground and it is still falling hard. The girls are really dissapointed, they have never seen "real" snow. The occasional flurry of snow in southeast Texas just isn't the same. Last year, we arrived just after the last snowfall. Lisa is sick, again. She has had stomache bugs and infections since we arrived in Houston. Poor kid has been through the ringer. I think we spent more time at the pediatrician's than anywhere else. Hope to be flying tomorrow and home soon.


Found an old picture of Lisa. I almost forgot about her curls, they were so sweet.