three magic words: you've got mail

SO. Here we are, in China, having lasted 2 months on the package my dearest mother sent me full of American sustenance. And I conveniently remembered that many people, before we left the states, offered to send us a package. Now, instead of being overtly rude and asking anyone for a package, I will instead just make it publicly known in a hinting sort of way that we would love to receive a package from anyone. You can't even imagine the immense amount of joy that fills my heart when I get a call from the international office at school and they say those three magic words, "you've got mail." In case you are so inclined to send a wonderful parcel of pleasure to your expat friends, here are some suggestions of things we would love to receive:

- microwave popcorn/kettle corn
- candy...any kind of candy that can't melt...chocolate melts in the mail
- granola bars
- ground cinnamon
- crisco sticks
- lysol/clorox wipes
- yankee votive candles
- 'just add water' baking mixes...muffins, biscuits, brownies, etc
- pentel R.S.V.P. ballpoint pens
- any 'souvenir' kind of thing from your home state...like a postcard or whatever. our students love it when we give them things like that as gifts.
- quaker instant oatmeal...apple cinnamon and maple brown sugar are our favorites!
- tiny, wonderful, delicious cans of diet dr pepper (if anyone sends this, seal it in a ziploc bag first, just in case.)
- chicken helper...the fettucine alfredo one, but just send the flavor packet, not the noodles or the box...it's all about saving weight.
- cream of tartar (it's like a spice, it would be with the cinnamon and stuff at the grocery store) 
- this may seem like a strange suggestion, but velveeta. we can't get any cheese here, so velveeta is practically a delicacy.

If you are reading this blog, that means you also most likely have our address already as we gave it out to a lot of people.  I'm not so keen on posting our address on the internet, so if you do want our address, just send either of us an email.

**Zack would like to add index cards to the list.

Neither would we mind a nice box of kraft macaroni and cheese.