Our FOUReign Affairs

For the last few weeks I've been flying by the seat of my pants. First Nathan left town for a two week trip back to the states and I knew I wasn't quite ready for that long with my crew on my own in a foreign country. I am feeling more comfortable with my surroundings in TienMu everyday but that is also because when anything goes wrong, communication breaks down or I have a "Taiwan UP" moment, I just dial el spouse-o and he smoothes it out. I know my limits and for now two weeks on my own exceeded it. So we called in back up. You may remember from Nanny Diaries past -my little sister Ashley. She graciously agreed to come and rescue me.

This is Ashley in the Narita Japan airport- can you believe that sunset?! This is my sister 20+ hours into her journey to Taiwan. I aspire to look like that when I leave for a trip, and even then I could guarantee nothing after 5 hours. Now if we ever travel together you can't say I didn't warn you.
She came bearing lot's of gifts, yay! Accessories for everyone, of course, since she is the authority after all. Ashley also had a mission (nearly impossible) to help me get our house in order. I hadn't even hung pictures yet. I did move into our house under duress so I feel like that's a legitimate excuse though we all know baby or no, my house would probably look about the same. Both my sisters are quite talented with arranging and decorating. They have an eye for it and I'm not ashamed to say I do not.
Thankfully they both help me and don't mock my attempts at beautifying my home, just jump in and rearrange here and there. A highlight of Ash's trip was that I got to take her to Ikea for the first time which was awesome. She was overwhelmed and kept repeating "We're gonna have to come back here..." over and over. She was surprisingly effective despite trying to take it all in. I was impressed. We've since spent many hours running the Ikea gauntlet.
Other things on the docket: sparkly nails for all of the girls of course.
I was so grateful to have Ashley's help doing our daily routine. She was here the week before Chinese New Year which is the biggest holiday they celebrate in Taiwan and a LOT was going on, especially for the kids at school. One morning we went with Kohen's class to the market around the block from school to buy the ingredients for dumplings before going back to school and making them.
In this ^ pic Kohen is distressed because he discovered some of the fish still breathing. (Now that's what ya call fresh...)
It has been such a treat to have someone besides me taking the pictures- proof that I exist! :)
Not to mention someone to capture Ander's baby blues and Aly's fascination with my heels.
The first week of her visit we spent getting through all of the Chinese New Year prep and trying to get the house stuff started. But then the day before Nathan came home Ashley's husband Shayn arrived and surprised the kids who were beyond excited for UNCLE SHAYN!!!!

Nathan got home the night before CNY's Eve and it's been a blur ever since. Not sure if the blur is cuz it's gone by so fast, cuz I'm constantly exhausted, or from the flash from gobs of pictures my sister and I have taken. Well, whichever, it's a good blur.

To be continued...