Fall foliage

Link @ Ohiopyle

Have always wanted to experience the autumn colours... the warm reds, bright oranges and golden yellows... so vibrant and intense! A stranger waiting at the bus-stop with TK told him that he cannot miss going to the Ohiopyle (a State park in Pennsylvania, south of Pittsburgh) for the fall foliage. So off we went :)

Took a one and a half hour drive on a cold autumn morning, despite the less than optimistic weather forecast. The beautiful fall colours only last for a very short time before the trees become bare so we decided to go in faith that God will hold the rain. It was chilly with the dark clouds hovering above us, threatening to rain every now and then... but thankfully, God granted our prayers. It was really a photo trip and the photos didn't turn out too bad, especially when the precious sun peeked out of the clouds. Charis enjoyed the various stops we made along the way, jumping and running in her boots and big jacket (although she did not "wow" at the colours like we did).

There is actually still quite a bit of green around... we were told that this autumn started late and is not as wet as it should be.... so it explains the lack of intensity of the fall colours. Nevertheless, we were captivated by the beautiful sights.

"Siew Mai" experiment... Hee

Looking as close as it can get in our first home-made attempt ;p My hats off to those dim sum chefs... so carefully crafting each piece with skill, and possibly lots of love! Creating these tiny delicacies is an art!

Recounting God's grace and our prayer requests

It has been almost three months since we arrived in the States. And we truly thank God for how He has been so wonderfully close to us during this time. One concern we had before coming over is how the demands from the studies would affect our family relationship. We are grateful that over the last few months, although the workload is extremely heavy, our relationships with one another and with God have remained strong. We still have time of prayers together; do most of the things together; go on outings together; discuss and make decisions together; eat together.... All these are by His great grace.

Beside the studies, another daily focus in our lives right now is seeing to Charis' growth. We are praying for wisdom, and that we will focus on God and God alone in parenting her in God's way. It is really good to see that she is starting to be more independent (although sometimes she tries to be so independent that it gets to us) and learning more things - both about general stuff and about God. And you know she is growing intellectually when she tries to reason with you like an adult, or asks for things in a more persuasive way. (Just the other day, she successfully persuaded me - her artistically decline oldman - to role-play with her a scene from her donutman DVD... I had to sway and sing and act with her...)

One thing that we are concerned with is the way she interacts with others, especially children of her age or younger. She actually relates quite well with adults whom she is familiar with (thanks to her exposure to all the granparents and uncles and aunties back in Singapore). And she really likes children and babies - she would pray for some of her friends almost every night. However, the way that she shows her affection and friendship is a bit "physical" - she hugs, she sayang, she kisses, etc. We sometimes are afraid that in her love, she would unintentionally hurt and traumatize these children... So we are now going to spend some efforts on her social skills....

Our prayer requests for all season:
1. that we will continuously guard our relationship with one another and with God
2. that we will nurture Charis well

Our prayer requests for this specific season:
1. that we can tahan the winter
2. that we will learn to work the heater in the house correctly
3. that the sweaters and jackets that we have are as good as they proclaimed to be

Autumn Colors @ CMU

Fall is getting wet and cold... but the nice Autumn colors around the campus warm things up a bit.

Close up:

Actually there are much nicer buildings in the campus... will try to get some shots next time.

All about food!

Link @ Cleveland

Drove 2 and a half hours to Cleveland in the State of Ohio last Saturday with some Singaporean friends... and it's all about food! On the itinery - dim sum lunch at 12nn, then off to another restaurant to pack roast duck, then the Chinese bakery to buy bo-luo-bao, shopping at the Chinese supermarket, and dinner at 5.30pm before heading back to PIttsburgh. Can you believe it?!? Thankfully, we had an hour to spare just before dinner and managed to squeeze in a visit to the Great Lake Erie.

It's the tenth largest lake on earth (by surface area) and is one of the five Great Lakes of North America, ranking fourth in terms of surface area. The area actually stretches from Ontario in Canada to Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan in the US. Pretty impressive huh? It would have been such a pity if we missed it. That's our geography lesson over the weekend!

We splurged on it...

... our piano!!! It came this morning after a week of waiting. Although it's a digital piano, we're happy that we have this instrument to keep us company in our new home. TK says it's a Christmas-cum-birthday-cum-wedding anniversary present for me :) Charis was so excited when it came and was the first to make "music" on it.

Can't wait to wear it!

Finally found a pair of winter boots that fits Charis at the second hand children's store. Now her winter collection is complete, with her jacket, gloves, scarf, hat and boots. She's all set for the coming winter. Charis loves her boots and wears it around the house. She kept asking about when winter is coming... she can't wait to wear her new boots out of the door!

For me, I don't really look forward to it. If only it'll last only for a day just for me to see the snow flakes falling on our window and to make a snowman.

A funny looking Charis ;p

It was fun playing with a new feature in our laptop today. This is Charis looking funny in the funny photo. TK and Charis had some bonding time posing for these... now being used as screen savers for the laptop... haha.



But of course, she's still our cheerful and pretty little girl!

It's flowering!

Still remember the Thai Basil that Charis planted?? We see a small flower growing... how exciting!!! Charis and I faithfully water it and make sure that it gets enough sunlight. Now she knows that a plant needs water and sunlight to grow :)

Just relaxing

Felt a gush of wind... I turned, and caught sight of some leaves floating in the wind, having been blown from a tree just outside our window... now the small green grass patch is scattered with tinge of yellows... lovely! Haven't noticed until just now that the tree right outside our window is turning golden yellow and red. I guess soon it will be bare ;p

We had the gift of "extended summer" over the last week, with temperature hitting 31 degrees C although it should have been in the teens. It's really nice after experiencing a few days of cold weather in late September. At least, we could still go out to play and enjoy picnics... one of our fav activities. Thank God!

However, it's back to our daily routine of checking the weather forecast... goodbye summer... and hello autumn :)

Apple pickin'

Link @ Apple Picking

TK joined us for this one! Fall officially started on 23rd Sept... pumpkins and apples are in abundance. We harvested over 50 apples at the Simmons Farm and shared them with another family. I guess, we'll have apple pie, apple soup, apple... ... over the next few weeks ;P

Pouting Charis

Argh... we have no water in our apartment today! Since I cannot prepare dinner and Charis is taking her nap, I went through some photos taken a few weeks back and found this one. Thought that it looks quite funny... Charis showed us her pout when we told her that we are home and it's time to get out of the car. She wanted to sleep instead... haha.