We'll be picking Josh up at the airport in about 24 hours. I am very excited. Not only do we get to spend time with one of our sons but we also get to show him around a country I've fallen in love with. I hope he gets plenty of sleep on the airplane because he won't have much time to sleep once he arrives.

Friday is a holiday - Double Ten Day, Taiwan's Independence Day - which means no school, so we're taking Josh with us to drive with some friends to Taitung, a small city on the east coast of Taiwan. As the crow flies it's about 75 miles from Kaohsiung but because there's a string of the mountains down the spine of the country it's virtually impossible to drive from west to east without having to go way out of your way. What that means for us is a four hour car ride on Friday morning.

We'll be back on Sunday in time to do a little neighborhood touring then Monday morning Josh will come to school for awhile. (I hope I mentioned this to him.) The students in two of my classes have been working on presenting interesting Taiwan attractions using Google maps and their budding oral language skills. It should be fun.

With Josh only here for a week we're going to have to cram a lot in in a short time. I'll make sure he drinks plenty of fluids and suggest he naps while we're at work. I'm sure he'll be fine.

Before I trundle off to bed I want to send a shout-out to our fabulous friend Nicki. I found a surprise package in my box at school today - candy all the way from Connecticut! Lee's favorite, Swedish fish, as well as one of mine, candy corn. Thank you, thank you. A surprise and a delight. What a nice combination.