Yeah, Meg got her suitcase late Wednesday afternoon.  She dug right into it and gave us are gifts and we spent awhile sampling all the goodies she brought home for us to try.  No one was daring enough to try the chicken foot.:)  I found some that I like and some not so much.  They have wayyy to many different flavors of Oreo cookies.  My least favorite was grape/lime! Yuck!! then mango, birthday cake and some kind of berry all gross!!  She said that they didn't have just plain old Double Stuff Oreos.  Meg has done well adjusting to being back home in America.  We have had to retrain her about drinking the water out of the tap (hee, hee), and she would tell us how weird it was that no one wanted their picture taken with her.  Once we pulled up at a stop light and she told me that in China it wasn't considered rude to stare and that it was weird that no one was looking at her pointing.  I told her before she came home she was going to have a hard time with "no one caring who she was" lol.  She did a great job getting herself back to the 15 hour difference, she stayed up all day and than went to bed at 9 pm.  She hardly got cranky - so proud even when she was tired she was nice to us (that's not how it usually goes:) She has been able to show 4 different groups of family/friends her China expereince - over 2,000 pictures, a couple of video performances, the stuff she brought home and share the goodies that she brought with others.  She has such an enthusiam and love for China and the people, she LOVED  it.  Sooo, if you would like to see/hear more about her experiences come on over - just make sure you have a couple of hours to stay.  Hee, hee.  Grandma and Grandpa Wach are here from TX visiting and they spent 3 years in China teaching English to college students and Summer (are Chinese friend/granddaughter:) had a wonderful time talking. Also while in China Meg met the man in charge of deciding what websites you could go to (censoring) and which ones were blocked.  I laughed he blocked r family website - so she never read the blog while she was gone.  I told her not to read it now so that if I made any errors she wouldn't have to "shake her head" lol.

Last Thursday was Katie's last day of school.  She had her kindergarten performance it was sooo cute.  Her teacher gave each of the kids a DVD of the slideshow that she put together --- soo cute:)  Katie wore her Chinese dress that Meg brought home for her.  I cried.  Sooo not ready for first grade.  I felt this way about each child but this one is going to break my heart.  Now I have to figure out what to do with myself.  Later that day we took Rye and Meg to see Brave.  Fun to see it again. 
Friday, I took Meg, Tay and Jacob to the eye doctor.  Meg's prescription is still the same.  Tay - no glasses.  But pooooorrrr Jacob needs glasses.  We picked them out and they should be here this week.  Chris and I were pretty sure he needed glasses.  When he and I read his 20 minutes for school or he reads the scriptures with us he would say the words wrong that we knew he should know.  I told him it was going to be exciting to see what he thought of the world when he put them on and looked around.  I can still remember when I got mine in third grade.  I didn't realize that their were individual leaves on the trees and I had never seen a rainbow.  I'm excited for him:):)  (Oh, and if you need an eye doctor we found a great one her in West Jordan - Craig Poulter - call me if you need his number- we like him -he's a hoot!! lol)
Chris was to ill to attend the Manti pagent this year so we didn't go:(  Meg went to church on Sunday.  It was her first time going to church for all 3 hours since she left.  Sometimes they had sacrament meeting at the school.  sometimes they got to attend the branch in another city (cost $20 to go and took atleast 5 hours to get there).  She told me how grateful she was for church and having a building to meet in - they met in members homes or in the mall. Meg enjoyed being in Chris' Gospel Doctrine class. She and Katie wore their Chinese dresses to church.  Sooo, cute:)
This week we get the honor of hanging out with Chris mom and dad.  Like I said yesterday Meg showed them all her stuff.  For lunch we went to Taco Time (one of ma and pa's favorite places to eat here they don't have one in TX) and then later we went and bugged Rye at Chick fil a for dinner.  We also had a dear friend stop by that we haven't seen in years.  Chris and Grant (Rowley) served together in scouts.  Funny to hear them telling stories of "the old days" I had forgotten about some of the things those crazy scout masters had done. 
Today, is Summers bday so we are going to go where she wants to celebrate and Meg and I found a Chinese bakery on line that we are going to go to to get a cake for her (and of course some goodies for us :)  adn Meg would like to go the Chinese market that Summer told her about.  She needs some Chinese bread - she doesn't like "American" bread, not sweet enough.  Poor girl:) 
Wednesday and Thursday will be lazy days.  Days to get ready for Friday and Saturday which are crazy!!  We had to call in my mom to help us.  Chris and I can't get everyone where they need to be.  Friday (I think - might change) I'm headed up to Webelos camp with Jacob.  Saturday, my mom will take Meg to her defense driving class while Chris is with Jacob at camp and I'm in the temple enjoying seeing Chris and I's dear friends being sealed.  Then later Chris comes home and we run up to another dear friends (one of the young men that Chris taught - long agoooo:) wedding in Snowbird.  Meg is excited to get her license back:)  Rye still needs to go and get his and Chris needs to fix his:) 
Life is still good.  My heart still wants to burst:)  My whole family is together adn things are going well (quick knock on some wood:) Who could ask for anything more?!:)  Life is good.
Crazy to think that last year at this time r family was traveling across the country playing at Six Flags parks and on the 4th of July we watched the fireworks in Washington DC.
"We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes.  And when we hve learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have expereinced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future."  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
Love ya, Ricki