My balcony

So my plan to go shopping at Ikea didn't exactly work out the way I'd planned.  After eating a big hearty dinner and staying up till 2am watching The Big Bang Theory and getting up with the kids the next morning I did not feel very good.  I think I over did dinner, but after not having an appetite all week can you blame me?  Anyway, Lucas took the kids to Ikea while I stayed home in bed.  He did some birthday shopping for Charlie and got us this cute chair and table set for our balcony.  I'm looking forward to spending a quiet evening sitting with him some night soon.  Sunday Lucas got up with the kids and let me sleep.  I felt much better by then thank goodness.  I even felt well enough to make my spaghetti sauce.  The only down side was that I couldn't make a double batch and freeze some since my freezer since it is about 10 inches wide and about 30 inches high.  No, I'm not kidding.  It has three small drawers and that's it.  Needless to say I don't freeze much.  Luckily with the Carrefour across the street I have gotten into the habit of picking up what I need for dinner that day. 

I had my first Mandarin lesson today with Eric, who is also Lucas' teacher.  Eric is a really nice guy who has already helped us in many ways here, the Chinese are so nice and always willing to help out.  We spent a half hour just chatting about some of the differences between America and China.  He thinks America is wonderful and I can't disagree but I did tell him that America has many problems too and it is far from perfect.