Alive and Well....and Happy!

Merry Christmas!

In case you all were worried, we are still alive! We have had a busy holiday season and end of 2011!! Time has flown by!

Top 10 things to mention:

1. Ellie can count to thirty in Chinese (she could probably keep going, she just usually loses her attention around thirty) and Siri can count to 10 in Chinese!

2. Ellie is FOUR!

3. Siri is getting her two year molars! :(

4. Some of Joey's family came to visit for Christmas. So fun!

5. My parents arrive tonight!

6. There are actual moments where I'm cold enough to drink a warm tea and not break into a sweat!

7. We have yet to find YUMMY Italian food in Taiwan that doesn't have a small hint of Chinese flavor.

8. We have entered Chinese New Year season which VERY quickly replaced the Christmas season!

9. We are looking to FINALLY purchase a scooter.

10. Ellie and Siri are getting too big too fast! They have adjusted so well to Taiwan and I believe they really feel at home here!

Latest Happenings

Thought some of you might appreciate a video of a look around part of Joey's school. This is taken from the side of the building. And as I scan around you can see our apartment building near the track.

Joey's about the only one close to being able to help Ellie with her homework as it is all in Chinese:

Though Siri likes to pretend to participate:

Here the girls are trying their first (but not last) tian bu la:

And here are some creatures we see around here fairly regularly like it or not.

A Lizard:

And.....a cockroach (Thankfully, this one is on the outside of our window):

Valences and birthdays!

With the arrival of our stuff, life has become a bit busy around here, attempting to get organized. But I must say what a difference it makes! Amazingly, as a result of finally having our things, it seems (but perhaps also due to the natural progression of time) the girls are acting much more settled. And so am I! WOW! What a transformation! I was beginning to develop strategies for an attempt to cope with this new way of life I thought we were entering into: continuous melt-downs, tantrums, and an inability to fall asleep at night. But alas, that was short-lived! Praise God! It seems we all finally feel at home here now that our things are here. A wonderful feeling. The girls can sleep in their own beds and play in their playroom with their own toys and read their own books.....ahhh! Peace has come to this house! :)

And so, here are some pictures of the developments:

Ellie and Siri's room:

The girls' room with a view of the valence:

The playroom:

The playroom valence:

And two posts in one.....Siri turned TWO!! Happy birthday, Siri!

There are several MAK staff family members who had birthdays this week and last week, so we had a nice big combo party for all of them! And here they are:

Believe it or not, Siri was first to dig into her cupcake!

We had lots of fun! We even played a few games:

This game was called "musical mats":

Yes, even the dads got to play:

The bigger kids seem to really like Siri, and Siri seems to really like them (and perhaps all the attention):

Siri had a great party!

We thank God for our little girl and another precious year we were blessed to spend with her! May there be many more!

Transitioning=fatigue

All is well here despite the lack of posts. :) It just seems by the time I have a moment in the day to blog, I'm completely and utterly exhausted with nothing to say. It does seem I'm suffering from the kind of exhaustion that a little exercise seems to cure most of the time, but in this heat and humidity, exercise takes a lot of motivation. The kind of motivation you need some energy to produce....hummm....

To sum it up, we are still transitioning! I guess there's no other way to describe it than to just say everything is tiring and draining! Everything takes a little more effort and a little more will-power (and a little more Chinese).

It seems these days I'm missing Panera Bread Co. Panera Bread was my little get away. After a crazy day and after the kids went to bed, somedays I would drive the 5 minutes out to Panera Bread, park in a designated parking spot and order in my native tongue the yummiest drink or pastry you can think up. Or better yet, zip over to Starbucks where the coffee drinks actually taste like coffee and on a nice crisp fall evening get a scrumptious, pumpkin spice latte with soy and as much whipped cream as I want, always knowing I could ask for more if I really wanted to (though I never did, fyi). No worrying about hitting crazy scooter drivers, or bikers, or pedestrians or suicidal dogs (that's what I call those crazy dogs that live here that literally take naps in the middle of the road). No worrying about where to park. No worrying about attempting to order, praying they understood me correctly and praying that they don't ask me any questions all the while receiving my order only to find out it's all wrong.

But before you think we are totally miserable, we are not. :) I think I have just found myself in the throes of transition along with my two children who for the first night in weeks, went to bed before 8:30 tonight, praise God! We are in transition. We are adjusting, recognizing the good, the bad and the ugly about Taiwan and digesting it one pill at a time. All the while, we are content, feeling safe only because we know we are in the center of God's will, the safest place anyone could possibly be in this crazy world.

And speaking of Taiwan, "Zhong Qiu kuai le!" Today Joey and Ellie had a day off of school for the Mid-Autumn or Moon Festival. Tonight we have heard fireworks going off almost incessantly. Here's a clip of some that went off right in front of our apartment! I took this video after the fireworks had been blasting long enough for me to pick up Siri and console her, think about what a good video it would be, get the camera, step out onto the balcony and THEN start recording, ie. there was more than a minute of these loud booms!

Living on a tropical island...

We have had several experiences lately that have reminded us that for better or worse we live on a tropical island (ok, some of these points aren't necessarily limited to only tropical islands, but they certainly aren't regular occurrences in the Mid-west US, well, except number 3.):

1. There are palm trees EVERYWHERE! This mid-western girl is just amazed at all the beautiful palm trees. This picture is taken on Joey's school's campus! Just amazing!

2. We went swimming in the pool of a waterfall (is that how you would describe what I'm trying to say?)! So at the moment I don't actually have any pictures from the waterfall but this picture was taken on the way to the waterfall. More pics to come (I hope).

3. We are experiencing a little bit of an ant problem. I know this happens everywhere, but I'm just a little annoyed and had to vent! Sorry, I refuse to take pictures of little ants crawling everywhere! :(

4. We experienced our first typhoon! Well, the winds had died down so much by the time they arrived here in Kaohsiung, they were actually only calling it a tropical storm, BUT because typhoons are so unpredictable and this one in particular had caused considerable damage in the Philippines on its way to Taiwan, the whole island had a government-declared typhoon day! YAY! And while it wasn't a typhoon technically, it rained from Sunday afternoon until Tuesday night (And, well, it's still drizzly today)! UGH!

Enjoy this video!

We are alive and well!

Hi all!

Just a quick hello to say that we are here!! We have arrived in Taiwan! We have been super busy these days figuring out life in DaShe, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan (yep, that's where we live: in Taiwan in Kaohsiung City in the district of DaShe). We will post lots of pics and more info later on how we are doing but just know we are safe and happy!

Bye for now!

Let the countdown begin...

To make this post a little more interesting, you will find pictures of Grandma Donna and Grandpa Wayne's visit to St. Louis back in April interspersed between my countdown list.

1 month: Kim finishes work

2 weeks: Tod's deployment

3 weeks: School ends (and our nephew is due to be born!) :)

4 days: Baseball season is over

5 days: Garage sale

6 weeks: MN trip

7 weeks: PFO

8 shifts: Kim's work ends

9 weeks: Head back to St. Louis to finish packing and cleaning our apt. (and get our last fill of St. Louis bubble tea.)

10 weeks: Pack up the container with Taiwan items and then head to SF

11 weeks: leave for Taiwan

For those of you interested, here is a link to an 11 min video of our new apartment in Taiwan!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37aG2floKPc&feature=channel_video_title

This summer!

Hi everyone! Well, my blogging has always been a little spotty, though major important, life-changing events are usually included... until recently. We've been keeping our faithful bloggers out of our little secret for some time but it is now time to clue you in...

We are moving to Taiwan!!! Joey has taken a job at his alma mater back in Taiwan, though it is a different campus and in a different city (Kaohsiung, Taiwan) than the school he went to in Taichung, Taiwan 10 years ago. But, alas, Morrison Christian Academy will no longer be Torgerson-less! We are very excited about our new adventure, which will begin in almost 3 months to the day (July 26th is the day we leave the country). Please pray for us as we begin to pack, sell things and mentally prepare to change jobs and countries! As for the girls, they are excited but don't have a real clue about all of the implications of "going to Taiwan." However Ellie is learning. As we began to talk about things we are going to sell, the questions and doubts started coming: "Are there toys in Taiwan?"

There is lots to do, so please excuse the absenteeism from blogging!