Lately...

Lately:

We have been spending time in the hospital rallying around my father in law, who has kidney failure and needs dialysis. He is in his eighties and is so tough and such a fighter. He has been working since he was eleven when he lost his father during world war 2, and helped to support his mom and siblings, and then raised his own family of seven children through challenging times. He is a hero in the eyes of our family! We are hopeful that dialysis will help him regain his strength and health, and praying for smooth transition into dialysis. Please pray with us!

Just Now:

The boys were enjoying a game of after dinner chess. I was sitting there offering passenger-seat advice, and after a few glares, guffaws and rolled eyes, have retreated to my computer to do what I'm decidedly better at, scrapbooking and blogging.

In July:

We went back to school for Term 3 of the school year (there are 4 terms each year). To amuse ourselves and break the monotony of school, the boys started taking out their old games and we had a renaissance of sorts. Let the Games Begin!

We also watched a lot of movies.

Continued our Tank-craze, which is leading us to think (just think) about maybe (just maybe) going to England for a holiday! And look what they said ...

Visited a Modelling shop - tanks galore!

And went to a Cosplay Fair - costumes galore!

The boys' interests sure are wide and varied!

DH took some awesome shots around his school. Jared continues doodling. DH and Jared modelling and painting their tanks. My parents in law started attending church with us!

Lifted this idea from another Project lifer (can't remember which site though!) and used the PL stickers provided with the Turquoise kit to make this Life Everyday card.

Linking up with Project Life Tuesdays at The Mom Creative. There's lots of inspiration over there!

Project 365 Pages for July

More everyday life - all of this is ordinary to everyone but me! So are yours, record your everyday!

Beijing Layouts

Continuing my Beijing trip layouts. I've completed 31 layouts, probably just over halfway through my photos for the trip, it's taking too long, but I do enjoy the process :)

Here is a last layout of the moments we spent just as we exited the forbidden city, enjoying the golden moment and dusk.

That evening we took an overnight train and went to the city of PingYao, an exceptionally well-preserved traditional Han Chinese city, founded in the 14th century. It has it's entire 6 km city wall completely intact, and is still lived in and functional today! We climbed up and walked half the perimeter of the wall, totally amazing. 

The city used to be a wealthy city of merchants and banks, and walking its streets, we could really imagine it's past glory. We visited the magistrates' home, the courts, merchants' shop space, banks, guest houses, templates and so on, there was even a catholic church! The court was fun because from young we have heard stories of how the 'wronged' can go to the courthouse, beat on this huge drum, to 'call' for justice, and get a hearing. The drum was still there!

The city walls was of course a defensive fortification, with canons, guard houses, and so on, which the men enjoyed exploring. Me, I just love being in close proximity with history. We found that the bricks had markings on them showing the year they were made and where they were made - cool!

Because it was a centre of commerce and banking, the city had quite a few 'houses' of martial arts. Where they train and had armed guards for hire, to protect anyone bringing money or goods across the country. The boys were so excited and if we lived back in the days, I'm sure that would be their chosen career. I found a gallery of paintings of this particular house's famed or legendary 'fighters'. It was a list of who's who, who had killed who!

This is now available as part of Template Pack 7 in the store. Thanks for your interest!

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