The Next Lil Bit

We are on the plane from Minnesota to New York as I write this:

Our time in Minnesota was really great. We are going to miss all you Minnesotans while we’re away!

New York has many treats for us. We are going to be able to meet with many wonderful people, many of whom will be at the TWO family reunions we’ll be attending. We’ll also have some great opportunities to spread some information about what we’re doing in China.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Back in America

Really, we’ve been back for a couple weeks now. Things have been great so far!

Our flight from China went off without a hitch (it was our best/easiest international travel so far) and we arrived in New York. Our short time with Jenny’s family was wonderful. We got to catch up with her family there and we got to remind ourselves just how delicious Taco Bell really was.

We’re going back to New York, but for now we are in Minnesota, and will be until the 27th. We got to go to a 4th of July carnival (the kids loved it!) and we have been spending great time with family and friends.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Party in the USA

Tomorrow at 5am (5pm for you east coasters) we are heading out to the airport to get on a couple planes which will take us to New York! We are very excited to see all of you! Here’s our schedule (written out in PST)

June 22nd
          20:00-22:00 Xi’an > Shanghai

June 23rd
          0:00(midnight)-14:15 Shanghai > New York City
          19:00-20:35 New York City > Buffalo, NY

After a few days in New York, we’ll be heading to MN, so stay tuned for more info on when that’ll be.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

中国！！！

We've arrived in Xi'an!

Sorry it's been a couple days to write this, but it's been incredibly hectic, as I'm sure you'll all understand. Since this will be a hefty post, I'll separate the paragraphs by topic. Enjoy!

How did all that travelling go? Our flights were as awesome as they could be! Levi and Liam were CHAMPS! Levi happily got on plane after plane, despite the incredible length of time we spent on them. We flew from Minneapolis to Tokyo to Beijing (spent the night) to Xi'an. What was it like seeing your friends and brother's family again? It was amazing! We saw them when we were coming down to the baggage claim and everyone involved was beaming with happiness. Levi was pulling his little luggage along and I showed him Sydney and he ran to her with happiness and was not shy of anyone! In fact, we immediately left him with them while we went and "claimed" our luggage. He was completely okay with it! Seeing everyone again was such a great experience.

Where are you living now? We have taken over a place that our friend had while she was here. She moved back to America for now, so we just moved right in! Jenny and I LOVE it!!! We had the landlord over today and after some bartering and discussion we reached a great deal! We have signed a TWO YEAR lease on this apartment, which we are both very excited about. We can now "officially" move in! Can we see pictures? Definitely! Just please give us some time and we'll get you all the pictures you need! :) Since we didn't officially rent the apartment until today, we haven't focused on unpacking yet. We'll start all that tomorrow, and I'll take some pictures as soon as we get the place looking pretty nice. :)

What is next for you guys? We are going to focus on getting settled in and making our apartment a home. After that, the next task will be Jeremy getting his job teaching English and we'll both get set up with a Chinese tutor/school so we can get our learning going. Things move slowly here though, so we need to be patient and move forward with the progress we are allowed here in China.

How is the family feeling? All the boys are sick with a cold. I blame myself (Jeremy) because I got it in Minnesota and I was not being careful around the boys. Levi has a rough cough going on and Liam has coughs as well. Other than all that, we are really really happy to be here!

I hope that caught most of you up to date on us here in China! We'll be posting more as things progress around here!

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Safe and Sound

Hey guys,

We arrived in Minnesota! The trip was relatively uneventful. Levi was REALLY tired when we arrived in Minnesota though, because it was four hours past his bed time and he didn't sleep at all! Too much excitement I guess!

Coming up: Jenny's surgery is on Friday! We'll be leaving for China on the 2nd of February.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Minnesota bound (again)

Here we are on our last move before we head back to China!

Once again we are packing up everything and moving back to Minnesota. It's all bitter-sweet. The moving and goodbyes gets to be a lot, but we are happy to say hello to some family in Minnesota once again.

We have a total of six suitcases, three carryons, and four personal items (laptop computer, camera bag, Jenny's purse, and our diaper bag. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? That's because it is! haha

Please remember that you can keep checking for updates on our blog on the right hand side. Right now we have a countdown timer as well as some flight tracking sites so you can see where our plane is, etc. Enjoy!

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

FINALLY

We have tickets to China!!!

We are leaving New York on January 4th in the evening, arriving in Minnesota around 10pm. During this time, Jenny will get her surgery and she should have plenty of time to recover and I (Jeremy) will have enough time to get our visas for China.

We leave Minnesota on February 2nd at around noon, fly to Tokyo, then to Beijing. We'll arrive at 11pm, so we'll be staying overnight there, then we'll be hopping on an early flight the next day to Xi'An! We can't wait!

This has been a HUGE deal, getting these tickets. We have had countless obstacles purchasing these tickets ranging from travel agent issues, prices, and tickets being reserved by us then cancelled by the airlines. (a few times!)

Until next time!
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

thanksgiving and an unexpected trip

So how was your Thanksgiving? We had a great time at Jenny's brother's house in Bolivar, New York. There were about 16 people there throughout the course of the four days we enjoyed together.

We found out recently that Jenny has a hernia in her bellybutton. This is because of her pregnancy. Because we have health insurance in Minnesota, we are going to be taking a trip (minus Levi) BACK to Minnesota for the surgery. This will be a very short trip, so we expect relaxing and recovering, then heading right back to New York. Unfortunately, because of what we'll be doing in Minnesota, we most likely won't be able to meet up with anyone, so we apologize in advance. :( We are not yet sure exactly when this will be, but we are hoping it's very soon. Levi will stay back with Laurie and Jay here in New York, and Jenny and I will be bringing Liam with us.

We have a new video up of Liam cooing. I, Jeremy, was feeding him, and he was just really happy about it I guess :) For those of you viewing this via Facebook or email, click here to go to our website so you can view it!

Also, we have new pictures up of our Thanksgiving on our Shutterfly site. Click here to see them!



Until next time,
Jeremy

farewell minnesota

A sad goodbye goes out to our friends and family within the Minnesota state borders. We love you all, and thank you for everything.

We are heading out tomorrow for our trip to New York. It's bittersweet; we can't wait to see friends and family there, but are sad to leave those that are here in Minnesota as well. We had such a good time with you all!

Looking forward, we'll be in New York until sometime early January. We'll be back in China after that! There's a lot to look forward to, thankfully.

I'd encourage you all to watch our video, which is posted on our site. So if you are reading this on Facebook or via Email, click here to come on over to our site to see it!



Until next time,
Jeremy

a procedure

Hello all!

New York is coming up so quickly! We have one week left here in Minnesota.

We have a lot coming up this week, including a small surgery for Liam. He has a swollen testicle, which has been diagnosed as Hydrocele. This just means that fluid drained in, so the doctor will seal up where it leaked in, and he'll be good as new! The hospital will have Jenny and him stay overnight because of the anesthesia. They want to make sure Liam recovers nicely from it due to his age.

I, Jeremy, will be staying home taking care of Levi, who actually just recently came down with croup. We have medicine for him, so he's recovering slowly. We'll keep you all posted as to how they are doing as we near our departure date!

Until next time,
Jeremy