Easter has come and gone, but the reason for the season is very much alive! We celebrated the special day in our home with 35 guests from eight countries. It was a wonderful time and everyone quite enjoyed themselves.
Rachel turned eight this past weekend. It's hard to imagine that our little "Princess Face" is so close to being in the double digits . . . wasn't it just yesterday that she was a little pea pod curled up on my chest? She still is quite a cuddler and likes nothing best than to spend time with her loved ones. We went to a pizza place across town for a family dinner on her birthday and had her party on Saturday.
Parties for children aren't that common here. She invited two girls and two boys to come and only the boys were able to attend. So many of the children here take weekend classes that they don't have much spare time. Rachel didn't want to do anything fancy . . . just wanted me to make heart shaped cakes for each child to decorate. This was completely new for her guests and they had a great time! I made an extra cake for the girl who lives in this building and Rachel brought it to her this evening.
Rachel finally lost one of her front teeth about a week before her birthday. The adult tooth is beginning to come in and it already looks to be huge! I well remember that buck tooth stage.
Michael is anxious to join the missing tooth club. His best friend is only two months older than him, but has already lost four teeth. Michael doesn't have even a wiggly one. However, I am grateful for this extra time in tooth care because Michael is not that good at brushing and flossing yet. It's a daily battle with him to do so.
This afternoon, I was sitting at my desk, preparing for my classes when I felt the desk sort of roll. I had been battling a headache all day, so at first, I thought it was related to that. Then it kept on. I asked Art if he could feel anything as I thought we were having an earthquake. He couldn't feel a thing . . . and he was only across the room. I've had vertigo before, so I wondered if this was a recurrence. I noted the time and popped into the US Geological Society website. They monitor earthquakes around the world and I knew if it was a seismic event, that they would have a record of it.
Sure enough, within a half hour, a report of a 5.2 quake about 160 NW of where we live was recorded. So far, I have heard of no damage reports. The epicenter is not far from the county seat for that particular area so I'm hoping that there was minimal damage there. Art has friends in that city and it's a place we wish to visit in the not-so-distant future.
This week is a four-day workweek for us as Friday is a national holiday. It's the Qing Ming Festival, a day on which people remember their loved ones and clean cemetaries, etc. after the cold winter. We've been having wonderful spring weather, and the forecast for Friday is even better . . . highs near 70 degrees Farenheit. However, the next two days have lows of 12 - 19 degrees Farenheit! The heat has already been turned off for the season, but fortunately, we haven't put the electric heaters away yet. I think once this cold snap passes through, we'll have clear sailing from here on out.
