The end of 2009 and of the Decade

(its hard to see, but the lemons say 2010)
So, the year is within a couple hours of being done (at least here in China!) Can you believe it??? 2009 has gone by so fast, and we think that it has been a really good year. January found us in the middle of a Canadian winter that was VERY cold. We really started making our plans to get to China a reality, with Chelsey getting her passport, us looking at dates as to when we could go, and applying for the programs. February, just after we bought our plane tickets mind you, we found out that we were going to be parents (remember the banana that made Chelsey cry??) and we were really excited about it, but also a little confused as what to do about our plans for China. After much prayer, and deliberation, we decided to push forward with our plans to go to China, even if it meant that the baby would be born there. March we took a quick trip down to Rexburg so that Chelsey could take a French test to test out of the class and graduate. Unfortunately, she missed the mark by 3 points! We were sad (and still have not yet figured her class out) but C'est La Vie. April went by in a blur! We were so busy getting ready for China and spending time with family that we almost missed finding out that our baby was going to be of the pink variety. May, we got on the plane, not knowing much of the what next, and made a 12 hour flight to Beijing! We spent most of may trying to find a job and an apartment, at the same time as trying not to spend all our money. It took some time finding the job that we felt comfortable with, as well as one that would get us the visas that we needed. We found that job, right after we got an apartment, and found out that we would have just enough days left in the month to earn enough money to pay the next months rent! They also told us that there would be "No Problem" in changing our visas. Three weeks later.... "Sorry, you are going to have to leave the country to do it." Welcome to China - Things change fast here. We knew that we had till August on our current Visa, and while weighing our options, we decided that it would be best to go home in August, have the Baby in September, and then come back on new Visas. We spent the HOT HOT HOT summer (it was even worse on Chelsey!) working our poor little butts off earning as much money as we could. We did not even go see many of the sights as 1) it was too hot and 2) days that I had off Chelsey had to work, and vice a versa. We have not even seen the great wall yet, is that not sad? We buy our plane tickets to go home, with Chelsey right down to the wire to get on a plane (most airlines won't let you fly past 36 weeks pregnant). Our plan was to fly Chelsey out first, then me the following week at the end of August. SURPRISE comes baby 5 weeks early, a week before Chelsey was supposed to get home. Jada, you sure came at an awkward time, but we love you! So all of a sudden, we are rushing around like chickens with no heads, trying to get everything figured out and done. Thank you Beijing First Branch! Without your support, I have NO IDEA how we could have done it all. Things worked out, we got our visas extended, plane tickets cancelled and re-booked, a passport and visa for Jada bean, and all kinds of other errands that kept us running around Beijing. Jada was small, but healthy - huge blessing! Believe you me, that night was one crazy night. Lesson learned - always have a plan 'B' - especially when a baby is due. We spent the end of September, all of October and most of November back in Canada, with out jobs, waiting on the stupid letter we needed to take to the Chinese embassy to get a new visa. We really enjoyed the time with family, and everyone loved having Jada around. As we had no idea how long we were going to be in Canada, we had Jada's blessing that first Sunday back in Canada. As the days turned into weeks, and slowly turned into months, we helped my parents repaint and re-carpet their upstairs. It was a lot of work, but it sure looks nice! They gave us a little money for it, which was a huge blessing in helping us make it through December in Beijing! We also had fun on Halloween, and even got some photos taken by a good friend of ours who is a professional photographer. She did a really good job, and also did it cheap! We loved the photos, and being able to surprise our parents with them for an early Christmas present. We finally got the letter and booked our plane tickets for the following Wednesday, went up to the Embassy on Thursday, got our visas on Tuesday, and left that next day. Wow, eh? It seems that this whole year, from start to finish has always been right on the edge of something! Yet it all worked out. Our money was about to run out that we had left in Beijing, and I got back to work with just enough days left in the month to pay rent (Sounds like May, eh?) As when we got back in November, our birthdays were coming up, so some of our friends helped through us a nice party, including a cake from Coldstone - yum! December came racing around that corner, and though we did not have a lot of money, things were starting to settle down and shape up. We got some pictures and carvings on our walls, as we had not done anything to the apartment to make it 'ours' yet. We are still planning on getting a 4 foot horizontal scroll to go over our couch, but for now, it looks good. We had a Christmas with tea pots, decorations and birds showing up in our home. All in all, it has been a really good year. We had many wonderful (and sometimes stressful) adventures. Even though it seemed like life was always on the edge (causing the stress), we had HUGE blessings that came right as we needed them, and we never fell over the edge - passports/work/visas/etc all came right before it would have been too late - sometimes within a day of it happening. We look forward to many more adventures in 2010 -- and we hope and pray that it is less stressful!!!!!!!!
We wish you all the best in 2010
Mike, Chelsey, and Jada-bean too!

Steal of a Deal

Today I was making some homemade eatmore bars and I realized that I had forgot to buy peanuts so I went to a small family owned grocer/convenience store in the first floor of our building. The had lots of peanuts but none roasted, de-skinned and non-flavored. I wasn't going to buy any so they volunteered to make them how I wanted right there and teach me how to do it myself. Well I couldn't pass that up; home-roasted peanuts, a cooking lesson and consequently a chinese cooking vocabulary immersion opportunity! And I just had to pay the price of the peanuts which was less than a dollar. I offered them a tip but they wouldn't take it. so apparently roasting peanuts is pretty easy and quick. You just dry-fry them over low heat until they turn a dark reddish brown, wait for them to cool and rub them between your hands to get the shells off. At least that is one way of doing it. They are very tasty.
Co-workers here are very family like. There is often a kitchen in their shop and they cook together, eat together, clean-up together and even exercise together.

First thing in the morning you can see all the workers out on the sidewalk in front of their work-place doing exercises. Another interesting thing is that the all stand in formation like military when they are getting a pep talk.

New Mom's Special Treatment

Some of the people who attended the baby shower went in together on a group gift. There were many parts to the gift but one of the parts was a massage. Oh wow! I have never had such special treatment, and I mean it was a treat. If any of you come to visit us in China you have to go for a professional massage!!!!!! It is so cheap here. For the equivalent of about $17 we got an hour and a half massage which included a very extravagant foot massage with soaking and lotions, ect. It was in a private room with just you and your friends, super comfortable, over-stuffed reclining chairs and all you can eat "room service". Now do you see what I mean. Do you want to come visit us in China yet???? Three of us went together, two of us are new moms and the other girl is very pregnant (being induced tomorrow). I needed to bring Jada but she ended up sleeping through the majority of it , maybe it was the low lights and soft music, hum. I am definitely taking Mike there the first chance I get, he would love it.

China Moment

It is often assumed that we don't understand so it can be quite entertaining listening to the comments people make. Yesterday Jada and I were on the bus heading towards Mikes work to join him for supper. There was a father and his young son.

Boy: The baby is crying.
Father: Yes, the baby is crying.
Boy: The mother does not yell at the baby.
Father: Yes, the baby is still very young.
Boy: The baby is crying again....now the baby isn't crying.
Father: The baby is asleep. Babies cry when they are tired, when they grow older they don't cry.
Father: The mother is getting the baby ready to get off the bus. (narrating what I am doing).
Boy: But I wanted to hold the baby.
Father: The baby is sleeping. You are going to have to find another baby to hold.

This is a regular occurance when we go to meet mike for supper but this one was especially cute so I decided to post it.

Potty Training update

A few people asked me to keep them updated on how Jada's potty training is going. When we were in Canada I was just letting her go in an ice cream bucket because it was easier. No carpet here versus carpet there and I was worried about her having a miss on the way to the bathroom. I forgot the ice cream bucket and over the two months we were there she had learned to associate the ice cream bucket with "it's okay to pee/poo now. So when we got back to Beijing she wouldn't go. I had to start from square one again. I took a day to take note of every time she peed or pooed and from that got an idea of how often I should ofter her the potty. While I was doing that I was also re-teaching her to associate the Q sound with potty not with which potty it was. That went really well, I was quite pleased with how fast she was back on track. I only potty her while we are in the house, during the day. At night and going outside and at church/other events I just put a diaper on her. You need to have flexibility, especially in the winter when you have to dress them up in sooo much clothes to go out. It is just not convenient. Jada does really well. I keep her in a Velcro cloth diaper (it is easier to take on and off) and she stays dry for the most part until her nap and then I change the cloth after her nap. Here the apartments are heated by hot water pipes that run through the buildings. I hand scrub the cloths and hang them on the hot water pipes and they are bone dry in a couple hours (we don't have a dryer). I have learned to just go by my instincts. I have got to where I just know when she needs to go and if I go on that instinct then she stays dry. It is very interesting experimenting with this totally new way of potty training considering that I had never heard of this method until coming to China. The first time I heard it, it was very hard for me to believe just because of our western way of thinking but it really works. It still amazes me but I guess it totally makes sense. Babies learn so fast, it is an optimal time to teach them new things. Other news about Jada; she is laughing now and it is so cute. Her first big laugh was at church when this other baby tried to steal her binky and now she is laughing more and more. She is just fascinated with watching the bird eat out of our hands. I hope that Amber will make a good pet for her as she gets a little older. Eventually we would like a parrot that we can teach how to talk and do cool tricks and are not so liable to get stepped on or squashed but they are sooooooo expensive. I don't know how much they cost in China, we will have to check that out.

Picture Christmas

Jada enjoying one of her christmas present. It's the coolest toy. You know those sticky hands... it is made out of the same stuff but it is an octopus that claps it's feet and has a flashing light inside its body. I think I like it even more than Jada.

Christmas party at mikes work. As usual, jada was the main attraction. Even while preformances were going on everyone just wanted to look at her. She got a little tired of all the attention after a while and I had to remove her to a quite place where she promptely fell asleep.

Christmas eve, after Jada went to bed, mike and I played a game of carcazone while enjoying our favourite christmas goodies (butter tart square, ginger snaps, sugar cookies, peanut brittle and mandarin oranges and drinking tea chinese style (sooooo much fun).

Jada on Christmas eve, looking like a big girl.

Jada looking at her new pet bird Amber.

Mike is a natural bird tamer; got her to eat out of his hand on day 2.

Baby showers, milestones and christmas parties

Jada will now grab onto things that are put close to her (within arms reach). She reminds me of a little kitten grabbing at anything that dangles in front of them with their paws and batting at it. She just gets cuter and cuter everyday.

My visiting teacher threw a baby shower for me and another girl who is due in 2 1/2 weeks. It was a lot of fun. Instead of games like the traditional baby shower, their was a bunch of appetizers and then we each were given a square of material that are going to be made into baby quilts for the two of use. They had some patterns for things we could embroidered onto the square of material or we could make something up. I thought that was such a cute idea. I embroidered a panda and the word china on my square for little boy Hunaker. He will be born in China. There are actually two babies in the branch under six months, one is Jada, who were born here and another 3 pregnant ladies who are having there babies here. That's a lot of babies for our little branch. I love babies, so I am excited.

It was also the ward Christmas party yesterday. Jada got a picture with Santa. We will post it as soon as we get it. We didn't bring our camera so we are just waiting for a member to email it to us. It was a fun Christmas party. We started out with a potluck dinner, and then the primary kids acted out the Christmas story, Santa Clause came, the kids went to do some activities and the adults watched part of the first presidencies Christmas message, then we sang Christmas carols.

We had spent a good portion of the say at the silk market Christmas shopping, which was really fun, so it was a full day for the whole family. Jada got really tired near the end but she had a lot of fun as well.

Belated Birthday Dinner

Mike made me a belated birthday dinner (we had to wait until a day off because he doesn't get home until close to 10 p.m. on work days). It was a redition of a special dinner mike prepared for me on our honeymoon. It was the same style of pasta, candles and music.

A few things have changed over the past few years: One being the location, and another a baby. But something that has not changed is that my husband is still have very loving and romantic. It was a beautiful evening. Thank you my love. And thank you to his mother for raising a great cook.

Be your posterity's best ancestor

As far as an update on Jada, she is adjusting well now to her new environment, I think she is even starting to enjoy all the attention.
There is a missionary couple in our branch, they teach english and are over family history and a bunch of other things here and there. The wife of the couple taught sunday school two sundays ago and while her lesson was on family history work she really emphasised what we can so now to be a good ancestor. She said, all of you who have children are already an ancestor. What legacy are you going to leave behind for your children. She showed a homemade decorative cloth for the table. It was nothing special looking, stitches were uneven and the pattern was unporportionate. The she read a quote from an elderly ladies journal who had pasted away. Through the journal entry we found out that this lady had made this for her granddaughter as a wedding gift. She had talked about the special relationship that this granddaughter and her had and how much it meant to her and she said "you know how I always say that the dinning room is the center of the home so I wanted to make something where a part of me could be in the center of your home. We also found out this lady had been practically blind at the time that she had made this.
The main point of her lesson I think was to encourage us to keep a journal with our experiences and testimony that our children, grandchildren, ect. will be able to benefit from. "Be your posterity's best ancestor."
Mike and I got this idea to create a book of a collection of recipes that come from our growing up years, foods that bring back memories and were traditions from each of our families. We also want to include comments and short stories that correspond. So far we are still working on jogging our memories and compiling lists of all the recipes we want to include. It will probably take some help of our mothers and grandmothers. We think this would be a unique and great way to leave behind a legacy of family traditions for our posterity. And it will help our children to feel connected to their ancestors and extended family. We have already made a recipe book that covered both of our missions and our goal is to at the end of our lives have made a recipe book series of all the major time periods of our lives, the places our family travels to and the traditions that come into our own home. I am really excited about this project. Food brings people together and so many of our best memories of family bonding moments and even outside the home are connected by a recipe.