In Virgina we used to live near by a bakery called Great Harvest.  My favorite thing to get there was their Black Raspberry Scones!  Well when we moved to Kansas, almost 3 years ago, Michael had a online class for Home Schooling.  Michael had woken up early for the class so when I woke up he was in the kitchen making scones.  He told me that he had had time to kill so he looked up a scone recipe on the computer. Well now we still use that recipe! I woke up to my Mom’s voice this morning asking if I would like to make scones with her! It was so nice! These scones always make me think of Great Harvest! Though they aren’t exactly the same taste I still enjoy them!

If you’d like to try them out for yourself, see recipe below:Michael’s Scones1 cup sour cream1 tsp. baking soda1 egg1 tsp. vanilla4 cups flour1 cup sugar1/4 tsp. cream of tartar1 tsp. salt2 tsp. baking powder1/2 cup butter (softened)1 beaten egg whitecinnamon/sugar sprinklesCombine baking soda and sour cream, mix well. Add beaten egg and vanilla, mix and set aside. Combine remaining dry ingredients. Cut in butter until mixture becomes crumbly. Stir in sour cream mixture until moist. Turn dough onto floured surface, knead briefly. Divide dough in half. Roll into two pie shaped circles about 3/4 inch thick. Cut into 8 wedges. Place on greased cookie sheet. Brush top with beaten egg white and sprinkle with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Bake 15 – 18 minutes at 350.

Today the kids and I shared the afternoon with some delightful children, Emma, Kendall and Grant Luman.  The Luman parents are in Jiangxi Province completing the adoption of their new little girl, Mattie.  This has been an over two year wait, since the rules and regulations for adopting in China have changed recently.  The parents will be gone a total of 10 days to complete the process, and today we hosted their other three children for the afternoon.  (One of the single teachers on our staff is caring for them in the parents’ absence).    We shared lunch, played Wii, made a “Welcome Home” for Mattie, watched Little House on the Prairie and went for an afternoon walk to get ice cream.  What a joy to see God’s hand and timing in the addition of this adorable little girl to this precious family!The Luman’s new daughter and sister, Mattie.

Tonight the kids and I said goodbye to our Chinese (English student) friends.  Two of them have applied and been accepted to study for a Masters degree in England.  The third will graduate this week and return to her home town seeking employment.   We walked to a local Chinese ice cream shop for dessert.

Megan enjoying her froggy ice cream. (The “Frog Prince”– direct translation from the Chinese menu, melon flavored ice cream with chocolate syrup)

Then came back to our apartment and played a game of Scrabble.

They were very interested in this game, and did quite well.  It is sad to say farewell, but we know they are headed out to seek new opportunities.  We will miss them very much.

A few weeks ago our whole family bought bikes from families that are moving away. I got a nice black bike that fits me well! Since then we have been going a lot of places on our bikes! Though riding bikes on a street at rush hour can be a little (VERY) intimidating the cars here are very aware of bikes. Practically everyone rides their bikes here! One of our friends said that they had a friends who had 4 bikes stolen in one year! So the popular idea is to make your bike look as trashy as possible so no one will want to steal it, but to make sure it still rides well!!! We keep our bikes in a under ground garage where our bikes are kept safe. One thing that surprised me when I first visited China was the talent of Chinese people on bikes! If you go outside you will almost definitely see a man riding a bike while the lady sits on the back or a women riding on a bike and her son/daughter siting on the back. I actually saw a grandpa riding a bike with his grandson on the back sleeping! This is quite a feet because though we have mastered the art of balancing someone on the back of our bikes it is harder than you think! When The person sitting on the back of the bicycle moves or shifts their weight the bike goes totally wacky and can dump you and your passenger right off like a dump truck! In the morning when I go to school I look out the window to see all the people riding to work and ALL the women are just peddling away in HIGH HEELS!!! That would totally brake my dad’s rule of ‘Nothing but Tennis Shoes on Bikes!’. In time I believe we will become Bike People as well.

The underground parking for bycicle!

Michael has mastered the art!

When I first came to China Erin was there waiting to greet me.  Erin has been here 6 years, but this year God called her family home.  June 15th Erin left for the USA.  I recently did everything with her, but one of our most popular things to do was buy Bubble Tea (Bubble Tea is a tea drink with gummy ball in it).  June 14th was our last time to get Bubble Tea together (at least for now).  I am very sad that she has been here all these years and this year is the year she has to leave.   But God is good,  He is sending another family to Tianjin.  So I will have a friend to play with!   I am grateful that God always reminds me that He has a plan that is best for me.  My new friend will be arriving here in a few days and I’m very excited to see how our relationship grows.Below: Erin and me getting Bubble Tea for the last time.

Yesterday morning at 8:00 my family tagged along with some people going up to the the Great Wall of China:)  It took around two hours to get there then our driver dropped us off at the top of the wall.  So from the top we had to travel “down” or more like up and down to get to the end of that segment of the wall.  On the wall there are many many stairs some are small, some are big, sometimes its really steep, and sometimes (rarely) its flat:)  We all had a lot of fun but Megan was having a little bit of a difficult time, so about half way through the 2 hour climb we came to some Chinese guys selling horse tickets for whoever wanted a ride to the bottom:)  Megan was too tierd to keep going so Mom, Megan, Maddie, and I decided to take a ride!  Maddie and I had already climbed this segment of the wall before so we went with Mom.  When we were almost to the bottom the people that had been leading our horses told us to get off, so we did thinking we had to walk the rest of the way instead.  Then they asked us to give them 10 kuai, I didn’t know what else to do so Mom gave them the money, then they brought us through a little tunnel through the mountain that lead to a Buddhist incense room or something!  Inside there were statues and a monk, it was really weird!!  But finally they lead us back and told us to get back on the horse, to ride the rest of the way!  At the end we made it to the bottom where we ate ice cream together while we waited for the rest of the group:) After the two hour drive back my Mom, my sisters, and I watched a movie and then fell asleep after a long day:)

On June 15 I went back to the Ji Xian portion of the Great Wall. This time with mom, all the kids and some friends from Tianjin. When we got there we started our 3 hour hike to the bottom (parking lot) with Megan! About 1/4 of the way there we stopped and ate lunch. After a while we got to the half way point and saw there were people that had horses to ride down the hill instead of climbing the rest of the Great Wall! Megan was getting a little tired so mom, Megan, Rachel and I decided to take the horse ride. Rachel and I also came because we had already hiked the Great Wall and mom might need help. It was a little scary going down the horse trail, but it was also fun! After we met up with the rest of the gang we headed home!

Today is our second week of summer break and so far so good:)  My sisters and I have been spending our time swimming, reading, bike riding, listening to book on CD,  and sketching:)  One of our favorite little events of the day is tea time! For our afternoon snack we have tea and cookies:)  At this part of the summer most of the families in our community are either visiting in America or traveling, so right now the only high schoolers still here in Tian Jin are Michael, me, and Matthew Kuritar:) It gets a little boring sometimes but I’m having a lot of fun with my sisters!