My house, which is becoming quite a home actually.

Listening to: Saltwater room by Owl City (love this whole CD!) Idea from Katie Bennett~


I thought that you should see my house. Its 5 story's tall.... yes, Wow!
I love it and now that we've been here for a long time we know everything around us and the buses, and our sweet guards. We have a small kitchen but its cozy. Floor heating is also really great! You can lie on the floor when its clean, its nice. Please continue to read all the past post's because I do posts about everyday but I still want you to read the recent ones :) Thanks, and love from Annie Rose.

Also my house ends after that window on the right but goes straight up :)
Oh and by the way Happy March 1st!

Love and sweets

I am about to finish my day.
I had a day full of sweets from the USA.
My little sister got a wonderful birthday package from our best friends in Colorado and it had Sour Patch candy in it for Becca and I. Sour Patch is such an awesome candy! So thanks to my friends~
Chinese lesson... I learned how to say lots of things. Here are some... Wo xi huan kan shu dan shi wo bu xi huan kan dian shi. Means "I like reading but I don't like watching TV". Which isn't necessarily true. We don't have a TV but we do watch lot's of movies which I love. I learned how to say phone which is translated into "Electric conversation" basically! I like Chinese.
We had our youth group over like we do on all Mondays, which is always a fun night! We do a short lesson and my dad leads us in some music. Then we play games! We also eat. Tonight we ate French Twists a.k.a donuts which are really good, although I shouldn't of eaten that much because I had only had candy and lunch so far ;) Tonight I kinda felt like taking pictures of something sweet and colorful and rich. Or a picture of a baby or something (we got this forward email about this Mom taking pictures of her baby in different scenes, and its really cute). Tomorrow I will be going with my youth leader Brittany, friends, Lydia and Leah and my sis, Becca to Auchon, our huge grocery/anything store (110 cash registers and very busy at times!) to buy baby diaper wipes, haha, for the orphanage.
I hope tomorrow will be a nice day :) I love everybody that looks at my blog and those of you who just "Follow" me around (kinda creepy). Goodnight and goodbye to Monday, February 28th 2011 whom I will never see again.

P.S.  I wanted to end this blog with that last sentence but I also wanted to say something about it.
It's interesting thinking about never seeing that exact day again! Its kinda sad and I might not want to end a post like that (although I like the way it sounds and I do like having it close the post!)

The... SIF. Our beautiful Church.

Spring blossom's! (Right next to the church) 

My sister's and Leah posing on a rock, next to the stepping stones we walk across every Sunday!  

Ahhhhh... 

The Steeple. 

It's a huge church! 

I love this picture~ 

That is the real color just so you know, isn't it pretty? 

And here's huge Jesus. 

Stained glass windows fill the church. 

This one kinda reminds me of the one at the beginning of the new Narnia remember? It's really pretty. 

The colors are pretty brilliant. 

Stained glass.

It's pretty big and very bright! It may look like look an Old cathedral (maybe, I don't know?) but it's not, haha obviously.
Thanks for looking at my pictures! If you want to see a picture of the whole church go on google and search,
Suzhou China international church and look at images.
Later...

Yesterday... Today

It is incredibly warm today! It smells like California and the sun is shining down making the air probably about 60 degrees. I can't wait to wear shorts and glasses and everything! A couple days ago you would walk out the door and feel cold air rush at you (slowly rushing) Yesterday I walked out and felt nothing but warmth and sunshine. There's still pollution in the air like always making it misty. But I actually got hot sitting on my front porch doing math! Its amazing! But the China summer is coming and it is boiling hot...

Oh well were in Colorado for most of it :) haha. So I hope wherever you are (and if you want it to)

get's warm and sunny in the next few days! Here is some more on weather and hopefully you enjoy reading it and imagining in your mind. One more thing. I just went outside again and that hot feeling is already going away. The Sun goes down so fast in a way.



I love the seasons! I was talking with my family about how every season in Colorado is sooo special.
The Spring starts and it is all fresh and the air is so beautiful and warm. The sky is sometimes very clear and blue. And sometimes it's rainy and thunder cracks which is so great! the rain makes everything shine with dew drops and leaves that beautiful rain smell behind~ Spring also brings my birthday, April 21st, which just sounds like spring! Spring gives you such a special feeling too! Not to mention Easter!
Then Summer rolls around and the sound of people mowing there lawns is exciting! The sky is super blue (like all seasons) and the sun shines so brightly and intensely especially at around 3:30 pm and on. We will eat outside on our back porch at the wooden table in our green, green, yard. After that we would sometimes go down to our frisbee field and play for a while in the last of the Sun, we all got good at frisbee (if you don't mind me saying). On Sunday's after church we would head down with al our great friends and play ultimate frisbee for a long time, getting hot with all the running. We would run down to the river and swim and cool off. Wearing shorts and a shirt is so nice too! Not having to bundle yourself right up to the top is relieving and fun.
Autumn would come and the leaves would turn slowly into those perfect autumn colors like always. The sky is crystal clear and it is still warm for the first part. Then it starts to get crispy cold and a little windy and the leaves fall to the ever dying grass and wait for the snow to cover there color with whiteness. Then comes Winter and the Snow all around is Beautiful! The white is so brilliant and the sun reflects off the snow making it so bright and, if untouched, perfect. One night, a couple weeks before Christmas, we went on a walk. The snow hadn't been plowed and so it was about two feet deep all over the road and no one had tramped through it yet. The Christmas lights were all shining on everybody's houses and they made it so festive and so special. Ben put us on the sleds and would run down the hill, it was so much fun! The light that night was so settled and kind of a cold, yet warm light.

Very dark and still, but with the snow falling and lights up and everything, everywhere was beautiful!

Then comes Spring...

Likes, interests, favorites and things about Me/Annie Rose

Everybody that looks at my blog knows who I am and a lot about me, because most of you are my very good friends! But here is some fun things about me (favorites, likes, etc.) and a picture (that I like!!!)
I'll start with my name, age and everything.

Full name: Anna Rose Lorraine Jones
Age: 14 (15 in April!)
Birthday: April 21st

Favorites:
Food: So hard! There's several meals I love, like Keilbasa (did I spell that right?) Stew and black bean burrito's!
Color: Also really hard so i'll just say... All the colors! haha a common response.
Movie: I love the Lord of the rings trilogy! And Despicable Me is such a great movie!!! I love all the characters!
Book: I'm not the hugest reader but I am reading the Narnia series right now and like it of course! And I also like a series of books called "The Penderwicks".
Music: SO MUCH! I like Switchfoot, and Colbie Callait, Sara Bareilles, Owl city, Regina Spektor, Matthew Jones (my big brother :) Jon Foreman, And a TON, TON more that I can't always name off the top of my head.

Some interests...
Writing music! Right now I am writing several songs. I can play about three cords on the guitar so thats so far what I have for the music part. I write the words and sing them. Andrew also plays guitar really well so he will have a guitar riff that I sing along too and hopefully will record sometime.
I've also played the piano since I was about four and use that for my music too, although I don't have one here in Suzhou, just a keyboard. So I love writing music and singing and playing a lot!
Being outside. It is getting warm here now and either sitting in the sun or riding bikes or playing frisbee or anything else is fun! Today we played frisbee and it was still a bit chilly but it was fun.
Keeping up on my blog is always fun! Posting about fun things, Suzhou, friends, everything.
Taking pictures!

And a ton more of course!!!! I love you all! I hope you enjoyed "My" post~

"He was Splashing"

I know, I know, I like to do "Creative" posts... I love color and taking clear pictures of things!
I will do more posts about Suzhou and China but I also like to post about certain pretty things and about fun adventures we've had (thats about Suzhou never mind!) I hope you will look at all my posts and not just the first one that pops up on my page... Because I do posts about every other day or so, and I would love you to still look at my other ones that haven't seen your eyes on them yet, and maybe one of them was or will be about you! So keep checking! Love you all dear friends.

Blue, Red 

Tinted with blackness

Blending together

Oh and as for the title, Rachael had pajamas and they had Horton the elephant next to puddles on them and they said "He was splashing". Randomness! And paint being splashed? You know it sounds nice.

Stitches :::::

Taeya

Taeya is like my little sister. For the last two and a half years I have grown very close to Taeya and her Mommy Megan. I go to swim lessons with Megan and watch Taeya while Megan teaches.
I babysit Taeya and go shopping with them and were very close. The last day I saw her was hard because she probably wouldn't remember me that well (thank God for skype so she can see us and remember us better!) I think she was probably confused about us leaving. She's SOOO cute and says the cutest words and calls us three all "Becca" because I think its the easiest to say. After we taught her Annie and Beth then she would call us Annie for a while. She still knows our names and loves to show us her new things on skype and i'm very thankful for getting to see her and Megan! Megan just had a baby and now we can see him on skype too! He's super cute too and watching Taeya with him is sweet. Since we wouldn't be able to stay and see Brecken when he was born Megan took us to her ultrasound to see him.

At the end of the road where I said goodbye to everybody. Look at my eyes...
I love you Taeya and will miss you until I see you in the Summer time! I love you Megan and it will be so nice seeing you all again! Love, Annie

Brother's and sister-

In December my brother came to China. He arrived in Shanghai and that next day we took him back to Suzhou to our home. We spent two weeks in Suzhou exploring and having a blast! Matt is such a great brother. We played a ton of games and listened to lots of music and ate a lot :)

After the two weeks for spent, we headed to Shanghai again to take care of my Uncle and Aunt's foster baby for two weeks while they went back to the states during Christmas. We got there and the next day they left and we had a baby again... for two whole weeks! It was great fun! But the post is about one day in particular.

Matt, Rachael, William and I took a taxi down to a subway station where we hopped on a crowded subway and hopped off at the place where all the "huge" buildings are. When you come out from underneath where the subway's are, you see all the huge, huge buildings and it is amazing! We met Andrew there. We walked through this really fancy hotel (I think it was a hotel or something?) And looked at the pretty Christmas decorations. We were all dressed in nice coats by the way, which we do here :)
We walked a lot. The biggest building in Shanghai is well, really big! And it cost's kinda a lot to go up to the top so we went in the one right next to it which is still quite tall and costs nothing.  Most of us had already been in that one but of course not Matt! We got to the top and it is so pretty looking out over the city! Its funny because this is a tourist place and to think that I can go there quite often and do those fun things which are right next to my city is pretty amazing! After that we said goodbye to Andrew and walked (more) down next to the Water side. On the opposite side from where we were is the Bund! All the old buildings which are very pretty on the outside and the inside!

 We were going to take a ferry accross to the bund side and walk around there. We started off to the right and walked all the way to the end and didn't find the ferry. We walked back to the left and found the ferry after a lot of walking. We paid the 2 Kuai and got our little blue chip and got on the ferry. It was short but we looked out the window the whole time and warmed ourselves in the sun. It was a very nice ferry ride :)
We got off and walked around on the bund a little bit. Its a very pretty place, one of Rachael's favorite!
After a while we were all hungry (an important part of the day... food) and so... we made the short trek to, Baker and Spice, a bakery with coffee and a place to sit at big wooden tables. Very enjoyable.
We all got our little treats and shared a couple coffees and some bread Rachael bought. We talked and ate and had fun like brother's and sister's are supposed to. Along we went home and ended are fun day in the city. Thanks for reading this everybody! Matt I love you very, very much and really had a fun day with you!!!! Ben i'm sorry that this post isn't about you- your gone too! But maybe another one. I love you too. The rest of you I love you very much too! Even if you weren't with us~

All the huge buildings here are so cool and in pictures they just don't look quite big enough (I guess there just bigger in person) so i'll just let imagine how big and awesome they are and think of are day there.

Gearing up to say goodbye

This was a glorious photo shoot! We ran through the grass with bare feet and in the river. The sun was so bright like it always is, come 4:00 pm. The Summer air was so nice and down next to the river there was sand and, everywhere, big rocks. The sky was blue and clear! Mikayla, us three girls best friend did it all with us (of course!) It was about a month before we would be moving to China and it sounded fun to take 200 plus pictures of us mainly just to have fun but also to make a photo book out of and always have pictures of us together that night. My camera has never been that good but we were going to do the photo shoot with it so... All the pictures that night came out great!!! And very clear and pretty.
The weather was soooooo beautiful just like Colorado~

You can't even see most of the blue sky! 

Oh yeah! 

I like all the glasses :) 

The river was so pretty 

One, two, three ON A BIG ROCK 

Right over those rocks is the field we played many games of frisbee on every sunday!!!  So much fun!!!!

Mikayla got in a more comfy position! 

Even though I live in China and it is my home now (and you know I love Suzhou!), Colorado/USA (of course USA!!!!!!!!)will always be there and it will always be my "home". and I love it that way!
Love you Mikayla!

They make me excited... what about you?

Notice the very little red ferris wheel in the background... thats near our house. 

The building turns all different colors and is HUGE! 

Yay! 

When there so loud and very bright it just makes you want to yell and be excited, which we were!

Chinese new year came! We went to our friends house (they are gone and said we could go over for the view) They live on the 21st floor and they have an amazing view of the whole entire lake and all the lights and fireworks! So here are some of my picture's of the fireworks that by the way exploded all night long...

       C-O-L-O-R-F-U-L

         I'm adding some Color to

                     this page

Even though its already bright enough.

              (Wasn't that fun?)