Welcome to the world!

Ethan Michael Rommel made his entrance into the world Monday evening at 8:30 pm (States time--he's a St. Patty's baby!). He was 8 lbs 12 oz and 19.5 inches long. Both baby and mom are doing well! I'm usually extremely strict about cell phones in my classroom, and will confiscate phones if they go off in class. However, Tuesday morning, I asked my students forgiveness and announced that I was leaving my cell phone on in anticipation of my nephew's arrival call. That announcement resulted in cheers from my students. Sure enough, during my second class of the morning, my parents called to make the announcement. I was in the middle of a listening activity with my students and was completely flustered--both during the call and for a bit afterwards. I'm super excited about beginning the "aunt-phase" of life...and quite sad I don't get to meet my nephew for another three months. However, it's been cool this week to see reminders of why I am far across the sea from family and friends...and why that decision is well worth the sadness it sometimes causes.

On a far less significant note, Tuesday morning we had one of the strangest weather phenomenons I've seen in China--not only did we have an intense sand storm (not at all uncommon during spring), but it was combined at the same time with snow showers. It was quite literally snowing dirt. Ewwwww... When I got back to my apartment and took off my coat, there was a distinct line on my pants between the part that was covered by my coat and the part that was exposed to the elements. Once again, ewwwwww.

This weekend we have some teachers coming in from Changchun to celebrate--we'll probably have about 25 people for Sunday dinner. However, to avoid some of the insanity of cooking with 6 toaster ovens for two dozen people, we're going to pick up fried chicken from KFC. We'll still do all the sides, desserts, etc...but that will relieve a lot of pressure! Shhhh...don't tell, no one will ever know!

The "big events" will continue Monday as Tim Davis, our company's president, comes to visit. At our annual conference the team pressured him into a quick visit and we're thoroughly looking forward to having the big guy around for two days. As you can tell...life is busy! So back to work I go...thanks for all of the thoughts for my sister & family. Continue to lift them up through this transition time!