{Shanghai + Suzhou + Ashley}

First, I need to let you know something that you're pretty well aware of already. I have fantastic friends. Not just the run of the mill  ,fair weather, obligatory hug on a bad day sorts. I sincerely have been blessed with a rare breed of people in my life that seem to rise to any occasion, enrich and push me to improve myself as a person, and always leave me feeling loved and overwhelmed with gratitude.

Ashley, in particular, has been a shining star in my life for quite some time now. Maid of honor extraordinaire, when I told her we were moving to China, and in particular to work for Disney, she had a travel book in her hands before I did. So, just as I was starting to feel the very real pricks of homesickness, She showed up, in China, to spend an awesome two weeks ( one with me) exploring, catching up, and enjoying a country that I had grown to appreciate in the last year.

Ashley spent her first week in China touring with a group and her father in Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai. Her tour ended in Shanghai, where Jeff and I met with her to bring her back home with us to Suzhou. We did a little light shopping in the fake markets, found some fabulous deals on shoes, and went up the Oriental pearl tower to check out the view from the observation deck.

This was as close as I could get Jeff to the observation deck. Notoriously afraid of heights, He refused to step out on the glass.

In suzhou, we took a slow pace look of the city, visiting Tiger Hill, Some of the older streets in Suzhou, and took a canal boat ride in a very old boat. I've never seen better weather than the week that she was here, and we savored every minute of it!

Red towel carrying hill toppers in China!

-Ashley

{Unexpected Goodbyes}

What's the quote? Best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray? It seems to be the theme this week.

The original plan was to stay an additional year and work at one of the international schools for a considerably larger amount of money. In September, days after we had made the decision to sign our lives to another year of China, we got the notification that my mother had decided to stop chemo. We knew that while coming to Suzhou was an inspired and growth experience for us as a new couple, we also realized that the time had come to return home and face the challenges waiting for us in the states. My contract originally was slated to end on December 22nd, we had arranged it so we could come home on the 3rd, instead. Everything fell into place and we knew we had made the correct decision. With that life continued onward.

On the 16th of October we met my dear friend, Ashley in Shanghai to bring her and her father home with us after their spending the last week touring northern China. Together we traveled to Hong Kong and enjoyed much needed time together catching up, enjoying the sights, and showing off my very meager amount of Chinese learned over the past year. It was an excellent trip, with blog posts carefully thought out waiting to be posted.

Jeff and I got back into Suzhou Sunday night after a long day of Chinese traveling, and spent the morning the Monday after casually unpacking and enjoying downtime. After editing pictures and gearing up to entertain you with posts of our most recent exploits, I received some poignant emails from my father letting us know that my mother's time was drawing to a close. Setting everything a side, having a frank discussion with Jeff, and some answered prayers, we began to set to task finding tickets home in the hope of getting home in time to ease last moments. In the midst of our hostage negotiations with the ticketing company over changing flight plans, we were told of her passing. The shock set in, and has yet to wear off. Setting emotion aside, we went into full drive of getting things aligned to come home. In under 12 hours we had tickets booked, bags packed, work notified, final paperwork taken care of, friends in and out of the apartment taking assorted things, keys passed off, and at the airport taking flight back home. It's truly amazing how people rise to help in times like this. I promise I will make individual thanks in full detail as time goes on, but for now, I want those of you who made this possible to know that we have been so blessed to have you in our lives and cannot begin to express the amount of respect and gratitude we have for you.

It hasn't quite set in, the weight of what we've done, and what has happened. I haven't given myself too much time to dwell on my mother being gone. It's still very surreal being back on Kentucky soil, breathing the fresh, clean air and watching the rolling green hills pass by the window instead of the sea of skyscrapers, apartment buildings and old canals that lined the streets of our newly abandoned home. It's a heavy set of mixed emotions I have to face, and don't know how to appropriately respond to the condolences on our loss, or the elation by many of our returning. I'm happy to be here, but I will sincerely miss the place we've left behind.

It's been deeply touching to receive such an outpouring of love and support from so many different people. I want to respond to each of you, but I haven't the words or heart for it yet. Please excuse my lack of etiquette. I do read each and everyone of your words and cherish them. I know that I am not the first person to lose a loved one, and it's heartening to hear from those of you kindred spirits that are so eager to comfort a hurting soul. I hope to be such a boon to others in the future.

My mother was such a phenomenal person who continues to amaze me beyond her passing. She gave me my strong sense of independence, an excellent sense of moral rightness and tolerance of others, and the freedom to make as many mistakes as I could so that I could grow to reach my potential, albeit through some very tough lessons. I'm grateful for the time we had, grateful for the forgiveness she showed me for my brash stubbornness, and for the continuing love I feel from her as I move forward from this point.

This next week is going to be filled with following job leads, finding living arrangements, being with family, and mapping out a very uprooted and unpredictable future. I hope those of you who are able will be able to join us this weekend in celebrating her life as we lay her to rest. You can find information on the services here.

Much love,
Ashley

{Leaves}

My classroom has had flowers streaming from the ceiling since I got into it. This weekend I finally decided to update the season. Hello autumn!

-Ashley

{Snapshot Portrait 2}

The quickest way to get around town in Suzhou is by bus. Jeff makes it look easy. In reality, it's a recipe for crazy stories, awkward stares and proximity to people who find you bizarre and curious, and SO many culture clashes. I've never missed a car this much, and I'm so very ready to have the convenience of independent transportation. Still, it's been a heck of a ride.

-Ashley

{BBQ Ranch Pizza}

There's nothing like getting confident enough in your own abilities in the kitchen like experimenting with recipes of your own. While this one has a few kinks to work out ( namely, I still need to find a dough that I like better), This was a DANG tasty pizza, and is on the repeat list in our house!

BBQ Ranch Pizza

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 cup BBQ sauce of your choosing
• 1/2 cup ranch or blue cheese dressing (I'm a huge fan of BBQ/Blue Cheese combo, but don't have it here in China. Let me know if you try it out with this!)
• 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheese
• 1 pizza crust

Instructions:



1. Cube two raw chicken breasts and season them. Salt and Pepper should be sufficient, though I throw a little garlic into the mix, too. In a medium pan, heat a teaspoon of oil and add chicken. Cook thoroughly. Once cooked, add BBQ sauce and simmer for 4-5 Minutes. Set aside.

2. Roll out pizza crust onto a pizza pan/stone/ whatever you use to cook your pizzas. Spread a generous layer of the ranch/blue cheese dressing on the pizza. layer the chicken and BBQ mixture on top of the dressing. Add cheese on top, and fold the crust of your pizza. Brush a little dressing on the crust, because lets face it, crust is just tastier with stuff on it. Ranch crust, oh yeah.

3. Bake in the oven on 400° F Until the crust is a golden brown and your cheese is bubbling. ( I like my cheese a little browned too, so I wait for it to burn just a tad before taking it out). 
Remove from oven and allow to sit and cool for 5-10 minutes. Cut and serve.... and go back for seconds. 

Happy munching, 
-Ashley

{Dinner: Variation on a Theme}

Here I give you two pictures. The first:

Yum. Right? And, being the thrifty wife Jeff's training me to be, I used some left over spaghetti sauce that had lovely chunks of ground pork, tomato and bell pepper that made the insides of this pizza into a surpise supreme pizza. There were no left overs. We waddled to bed. Such is the life of fat people.

The second picture:

Probably the ugliest thing I've ever made. It was a loosely based attempt on this recipe gone awfully terribly Frankenstein. Too much dough on my part, and poorly assembled, this glob of a monster almost overtook our poor little toaster oven. Aesthetics aside, this was OH MY GOODNESS delicious. There will be second attempts... and possibly thirds.

-Ashley

{Om Nom Nom Baking}

I feel only slightly guilty that the majority of my posts lately have been baking related. Honestly, it's my way with coping with being so far away during the fall season. I have this week off for "National Holiday" and have literally been in the kitchen baking every day. Here are today's conquests!

Fresh baked bread, yeast rolls, and sugar cookies! I've been a little under the weather lately and the smells of China have been particularly nausiating. It's been good to have such delicious smells blocking them out. Jeff brought home a couple of happy little pumpkins today from the market. I smell pumpkin bread/pie/cookies in our future! :)

Have a scrumptious day!
-Ashley