2011/12/31

God is the Perfect Example to Look to for Parenting Advice

My father-in-law got me a book for Christmas by Elder Bednar called Increase in Learning and there was something that stood out to me about teaching your children. He says the admonition in D&C is not for parents to teach their children but for them to teach them to understand. To understand does not mean to just mentally comprehend but to feel it in their hearts. He gave an example of how God helps his children to understand. Adam was hiding because he had eaten of the tree of life and was ashamed. God called to Adam, "Where art thou?" God already knew where he was so why ask the question if he already knows. Many parents would say "Adam, get out from under there!" and proceed to give him a lecture. God asked Adam what he was doing. By doing so he was treating him as an agent and inviting him to act. God asks additional questions and Adam begins to respond and then come to understand what he had done. The Father did not ask because He did not know where Adam was but because Adam did not know where Adam was. He gave another example of when Nephi wanted to know what his father had seen in The Dream of the Tree of Life. The Holy Ghost invited him to look. After seeing the vision the Holy Ghost asks him. What did you see? My mom told me that in institute classes now they have time for the students to write down their thoughts and impressions. I served my mission a few years after preach my gospel came out and my mission president challenged us to invite everyone we talked to, on the first time meeting to baptism. We told them that we wanted to give them a goal and set a date for their baptism and over the next few weeks we helped them prepare by coming to know for themselves by the witness of the Holy Ghost that this is the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, ect.We gave them scripture passages for them to read on their own and we invited them to pray to receive their own answers on the truth of the things we were teaching them. I firmly believe that everyone of us needs to gain our own witness. It is only through the Holy Ghost that we can come to understand in our hearts the doctrines of the gospel and other truths relating to life. And we can only receive that witness if we act. The principle of faith and how to develop it is mentioned many times in the scriptures and in church meetings. I thought it really wonderful to see it related to one of our most sacred responsibilities and that is raising our children. Just one more quote that Mike shared with me from his personal study that I want to share.
George Albert Smith said "It is our duty-I should say, it is our privilege as well as our duty to take sufficient time to surround our children with safeguards and to so love them and earn their love that they will be glad to listen to our advice and counsel."
I know with a deep understanding in my heart and as I have personally witness in my life, that God will open the windows of heaven and pour out his spirit upon those who seek, ask and act to the understanding in their hearts of His truths and with that understanding become changed more and more like our savior and be able to fulfill all the things we rejoiced, in the spirit world, over the opportunity to do and become in this life. And I want to do my very best to fulfill my sacred responsibility as a parent to raise my children in a home filled with the spirit and love and help my children come to an understanding and gain their own testimonies.

2011/12/30

Recipe of the Week

I had such a hard time choosing a recipe this week as there were at least 4 new recipes I tried this week that were truly awesome. But since last weeks recipe was quite advanced baking as well as very time consuming and I have promised fast and easy recipes, I went with the easiest recipe. This one we actually have been making for years. We learned it on our missions in Taiwan. It is even better when you make your own bing (that is the word Chinese use for any and all breads that are usually but not always flat and round). But we have made it even simpler by just using a tortilla you can buy at the store. There is a delicious sweet and garlicy soy based sauce that Taiwanese serve with most things breakfast but I have not been able to find it here. I have been experimenting to make it my self because I miss that stuff so much and I am close but not quite there yet. But they also serve it with sweet chili sauce and that is easy to find and a highly recommended condiment for just about anything. The one similar to that in Taiwan looks like ketchup, so different from the commonly seen Thai sweet chili sauce that is transparent with pieces of chili floating around in it. I find that one too sweet with zero spiciness but a lot of people really like it.

Dan Bing
(recipe for one serving)

2 eggs, beaten
some oil
any other fillings you want (commonly seen in Taiwan is corn, green onion, ham, chicken or bacon)
sweet chili sauce

Heat a frying pan over medium heat for 5-10 minutes then add a little oil and swirl it around until it lightly coats the bottom of the pan. Pour beaten eggs, that have been mixed with what ever other ingredients you want or just left plain, into the pan and turn the pan so that the egg spreads out to roughly the same circumference as your tortilla. Place tortilla on top of egg. Wait 1 minute or until tortilla gets puffy and the egg underneath feels firm to the touch. It tastes best when the egg is only lightly browned. Loosen the egg from the pan and flip the tortilla over (the egg will have adhered to the tortilla) and lightly brown the tortilla. Remove from pan and when cool enough to touch, roll it up. Serve with sauce.

2011/12/21

Stake's 100 Day to Zion Challenge

Our Stake has given us a challenge for the new year. They have challenged us for 100 days straight to do personal prayer and scripture study, family prayer and scripture study and hold family home evening once a week and to have a family service activity once a week. Mike and I have decided to just say yes, make a firm decision and commitment and stick to it. We decided to not wait til January but to start right away and we can already feel the increased spirit and love in our home. Our kids are young and so we keep it quite simple. We have found the childrens stories very helpful on www.lds.org. We had the mormon channel on one day and there was a comment made that children are being raised in enemy territory and we knew that we did not want that to be our children. We believe that these four things, as we practice them faithfully will keep the influences of the enemy at bay and out of our home. Mike and I over the years have tried several times to be more faithful in these four things and I guess we lacked the motivation. Things are different, we have found the testimony and conviction we need to be faithful and what a huge blessing it is in our lives.

2011/12/20

Recipe of the Week

I have been experimenting for years to learn to make excellent pizzeria style pizza as to me that is the perfect pizza and who doesn't love a really good pizza. I was making personal size pizzas to sell to mikes co-workers this week and so I decided to post this recipe as recipe of the week. It is not quick and easy but at least the work is split up over an at least 24 hour period. It is the pizza for special occasions, not a last minute pizza recipe but it is worth it, at least I think so. The crust is chewy and crispy yet light and airy and full of irregular sized bubbles. I love a good crumb (the bubbles you see in bread, big, small, minuscule or irregular meaning all different sizes). This dough goes through a process called cold fermentation which allows it time to develop a truly rustic flavor. That is the reason for so little yeast if you bakers are wondering. Otherwise the the dough would over ferment, in other words it would run out of food before the dough has the chance to take on the complex flavors that time gives it. Many bakeries use a sponge to do this as it is not practical to need cold storage for the amount of dough they produce. But for home bakers this is far more practical then keeping a sponge alive. I have a recipe for rolls that use cold fermentation and they are amazing. I also have been doing french bread using this method.

Ingredients for crust
flour (amount varies depending on brand and location)
2 tsp. table salt
1 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 cups water
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Combine yeast, water and sugar and let sit for 5 minutes. Mix in salt, olive oil and 2 cups flour. Stir for one minute and then let rest 5 minutes so the flour can fully hydrate. Continue mixing and add flour as needed, a little at a time until you have a soft smooth dough that is somewhere between sticky and tacky. Spread a little oil on the counter and your hands and put the dough on the counter and stretch out one side of the dough and then fold it back over top of the dough then repeat with the other three sides. Turn over and cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Repeat another three times waiting 10 minutes in between each stretching. You will see the dough get super soft and smooth. I liken how it looks to a ball of fresh mozzarella. Place dough in a clean oiled bowl, cover with plastic and refrigerate for at least 24 hours and up to 4 days. Bring the dough out of the fridge an hour and a half before you plan to cook it and divide into how ever many pizzas you want to make, keeping size of pizza and thickness of crust in mind.  Shape into balls and cover but leave out at room temp.If you don't want to bake them all that day then place the ones you won't be using back in the fridge. About 1 hour before baking place your pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 500 degrees F. Once the hour and a half is up for the dough to come to room temp. sprinkle some flour on your counter and on hands and transfer one ball of dough to the counter. Sprinkle flour over the dough ball and then carefully and lightly stretch out the ball they place over your fist and put your other fist beside the first and carefully stretch the dough with your two fists while rotating the dough on top of your fists until desired size. Be very gentle when forming it so you don't pop many bubbles as this is key to the texture. Place on oiled parchment paper. Transfer to peel and top pizza as desired then use the peel to transfer the pizza and parchment paper to the preheated pizza stone. Immediately turn the heat down to 425-450 degrees F depending on your oven. Bake, turning once until evenly browned. Repeat with remaining dough.

2011/12/14

Two talks for your personal study

I just wanted to reccomend two talks that I find incredibly inspirational and motivational for you all to read. The first is Terror, Triumph and a Wedding Feast by Elder Holland and the second is The Three I's by Elder Sterling W. Sill.

a crawling race






So Makayla is quite happy to be mobile. She started to crawl days before pulling up on things. She often has a big smile when she is crawling. Howver, that also means we have two girls getting into things now...

2011/12/13

Recipe of the Week


I have decided to post our favourite recipe of the week each week , unless there is none of course. Cooking is a favourite hobby of mine but all the excitement for me is in trying new recipes, finding the perfect recipe for a favourite food and experimenting so probably 80 percent of the time I am cooking it is a new recipe I have never tried before. May as well keep what you must do everyday exciting instead of letting it get mundane right. So this means we are constantly finding new favourites. Most of them are fairly easy and not much hassle to prepare because I am a mother of a toddler and a baby. A lot of people are short of time for some reason or another so I would love to share the recipes we find with you all. This weeks recipe is a recipe that we keep coming back to from a cookbook we were given at our wedding. I use whatever pasta I have or feel like and substitute my own quick and easy homemade sausage. The recipe follows. This is also really popular with broccoli rabe ( you can substitute spinach or another green if you can't find it) All are really good but for spinach I would just toss it in at the end when everything is done cooking. Spinach any more cooked than just wilted is pretty bitter and slimy in my opinion so I just toss it with hot food
and then it is delicious. I also always chop spinach when cooked and that makes it a lot tastier in food as well. Actually I love it when cooked and prepared exactly as just described but can't stand it overcook or in whole leaves. just me but also a tip for those that have a bad taste for spinach to try it again using these methods. Also a great way to get kids to eat it.

Orecchiette with Broccoli and Italian Sausage
1 bunch broccoli (about 1 pound)
10 ounces Italian sausages
2 Tbsp. olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp. salt
12 ounces orecchiette or small shell pasta
3/4 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Cut broccoli into florets. If using italian sausage prick the sausages several times. Place in a non-stick skillet with 1/4 cup water and cook over medium heat 10-15 minutes. Pour fat out of skillet and set sausages aside to cool then cut into 1/4 inch slices. In same skillet, heat oil over low heat and add garlic and cook 2 minutes or until tender. Add broccoli, cooked sausage and salt. Add chicken broth, cover and cook 20 minutes or until broccoli is very soft.Meanwhile cook pasta and reserve 1/3 cup pasta water. Add lemon juice to broccoli mixture. Transfer mixture to large bowl, add pasta, Parmesan cheese and reserved pasta cooking liquid and toss well. Mash up broccoi with a wooden spoon or leave whole.

Sausage
1 lb. ground pork or chicken
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 Tbsp. course salt
1/4 Tbsp. black pepper
1/4 Tbsp. fennel
1/2 Tbsp. chopped parsley
1/2 tsp. rubbed sage
2/3 tsp ground marjoram

Mix all ingredients together and marinade in fridge 2 hours. You may then cook how ever you like to be used right away or frozen. I make it into little rounds, cook and freeze in a large ziplock bag. It is then convenient to use in pasta or on pizza for quick meals with minimal prep.

2011/12/10

Jada and Makayla's new successes

Our girls are growing up so fast. Kayla is Crawling and pulling up on things now. The crawling came first but not by much. And Jada is potty trained!!! Yeah! Not night trained yet so if you count that as potty trained than she is 90 percent of the way there. She actually was not too hard to teach, I was kind of dreading it because I thought it would be alot harder than it was. I would say it took about 2 months to get to the point where she can recognize when she needs to and goes all by herself without any prompting. I am crossing my fingers that makayla will be easy to train too. As those of you know who have been following this blog, I used EC elimination communication (as they call it here in the west) with jada from newborn to about 6 months. It is a potty training method used all throughout asia, which is how I learned about it, and in africa, ect. It has been gaining popularity in the west recently because people are becoming more concious of taking care of the environment and going green. Alot of people also have gone back to cloth diapers because of concerns about the environment. That is not why they do it that way in Asia, it is just tradition there. I was not very good at being consistent with it. But I found it very useful for somethings. Basically from birth I taught her to associate eliminating with a certain sound I made. It was great because when ever I changed her diaper I also took her to the potty and I could communicate with her what I wanted her to do. This meant her new diaper stayed clean for quite a while. That was wonderful and very useful. I wish I could say I was better at it. I haven't even made an attempt with Makayla which is unfortunate. Oh, well. I feel really bad, I know I should at least use cloth diapers.

2011/12/02

Food Blogs

I want to share with everyone my two favorite favorite food blogs. Everything I have made from recipes on these sites has been awesome, I mean I would be very happy if this quality of food was served to me at restaurants. Both sites also tailor their recipes for the health conscience. www.skinnytaste.com and http://www.easy-chicken-recipes.com/. Try out the cuban, mexican and puertorican recipes on skinnytaste, restaurant quality only better because it isn't loaded with tons of fat, salt and msg. Love, love, love these blogs. The skinnytaste site also has baked versions for alot of popular deep-fried foods such as chicken nuggets, french fries, sweet potato fries, onion rings, ect. Baking not only makes them healthier but some much less fuss and mess. Some of my very favourite recipes on the easy-chicken-recipes site are teriyaki chicken, general tao's chicken, orange chicken, chicken lo mein (done with chinese flat wheat noodles), salsa chicken, buffalo chicken sandwhiches, spicy fried chicken (mike compares it to Zums of waterton fried chicken and you don't have to make it spicy), chicken and dumplings (best I have ever had) and garlic chicken (so much flavor, we couldn't believe how good it was). And there are many, many more we just have not tried yet.

2011/11/25

Jada feeding makayla

What will Makayla do first?

Will she crawl, pull up on things or walk first is the question? Jada pulled up then walked and finally learned to crawl. Here is a video of Kayla practicing crawling but she also practices pulling up on things. Not quite doing eeither but soo close. Ahh, I couldn't get the video to load. We are having troubles with that lately. We have an adorable video of Jada feeding Makayla and we tried to load it three times using different formats and methods but no success. We will show you guys the videos in person when we see you.

Adorable picture of jada wearing potato head glasses and pretending the wing is ice cream.

2011/11/01

The Girls on Halloween








Had to show you all this picture of how well Makayla is doing sitting up.


We took the girls to our wards trunk or treat instead of the traditional door to door and I think it was just about perfect for Jada. It was pretty small and even half way through she got disinterested in trunk or treating and more interested in what was in her bag. Amy sent up a bag of costumes and Jada loved the lion costume, she has a stuffed lion that she often goes to sleep with at night. We tell her that lions are brave and so she doesn't need to be scared and she is happy with that. My mom and brother came too beacuse they wanted to see the girls in their costumes. Mike ran the trunk handing out candy and my mom and braden helped with Makayla and I helped Jada around. We got a few trick or treaters at the house but our candy ran out quickly and we had to turn out the light after that. It is fun being on the parent end and seeing our kids have fun and experiencd these things. Just about as much fun as being a kid again.
Mike was a demon/taxi driver. He would tip his hat to people and say Hello, I'll be your demon, I mean your driver tonight. I was hello kitty because Jada decided she didn't want to be that but the dress was a little small for me.








2011/10/30

Pumpkin Carving

I've used this site once before, and found it really cool so we used it again this year for our pumpkin carving. The site is http://www.zombiepumpkins.com/. As of now, there is almost 300 different patterens to choose from. It is a paid site, but the 5-10 dollars that you spend on it is more then worth it!
This year we invited a bunch of people to come over and carve with us, but alas only one other couple showed up. Oh well, we had fun!

Here are our pumpkins that we carved





Freddy Krueger (mike), the Cheshire Cat (Chelsey), Chewbacca (Our friend Chase) and Boogedy Boo/Trick or Treat/Eek! (not shown - all on one pumpkin! Done by Chase's wife Cynthia)
also Bonejangles, which I carved the other night to show people as they came in.

Here is a black and white because it looks cool that way



2011/10/14

Outfitted for Winter







My sister and her husband have a business where they sell alpaca wool knitted stuff from Ecuador, her husband is from there. These are so warm without the bulk and so it is perfect for kids in car seats. All their coats are lined as well for extra warmth. They gave us a super good deal which was very generous of them. I think the girls look so cute and snug so I had to take some pictures and post them.

2011/10/04

Funny Toddler Moments

Jada put her P.J's on all by herself


We were visiting Mike's parents and when it was time to leave Nana asked for a hug and so Jada gladly gave her a hug and then she goes up to Jeff and says no hug and the same with Kate and Grandpa, all no hug. Grandpa came up to her with his arms out and says are you sure I can't have a hug and she says no hug, bye bye and turns around to walk away. Jeff says "Jada has spoken" and we all laugh.


I have been asking Jada to clean up what she plays with before starting a new activity and she is so obedient with it, she is such a sweet little girl. She is an adventurous eater, good sleeper, well-manner with her pleases and thank yous and respects and obeys what her mom and Dad ask of her very well for her age and understanding I think. We are very blessed to have both of our daughters be a part of our family. They bring a lot of joy to us, both very loving, cheerful and entertaining to say the least.


Today at the park I was pushing Jada in the swing and she was bothered by the wind that kept blowing the hood of her coat off but then every time she would swing towards us Makayla started laughing and laughing and then Jada started laughing. It was really cute.

2011/09/20

Our Hair Twirler











We gave Jada a pixie cut, why? Because she is a hair twirler. Her hair was probably between 4 and 5 inches long and with that length she was waking up most morning with really bad knots in her hair. There was nothing we could do but cut them out. The twirling was damaging it really bad so it really wasn't looking very nice. The pixie cut is soooo cute on her though. I cut it too 1 inch so she can still play with it but it won't knot. She does it to put herself to sleep, a calming thing, it is fairly common in toodlers. They say by three years old it usually stops so she just might have a pixie till then. Here are some pictures both of Jada's haircut and some cute ones of Kayla.

Cute Cute Video of The Girls

2011/09/15

Please Be Patient With Us


We are adults in training, new on the job, dependent on you, looking for instruction. Please be patient enough to show us and help us understand as many times as it takes.

Please discuss with us and help us understand the rules and boundaries instead of angered no's that come with no teaching, no explanation and just leave us shaken and confused.

Please give us age appropriate expectations and help us learn them gently with positive encouragement, giving us patience and time to learn them.

We just do what comes natural to us. We need you to gently teach us what we should do and how we should do it and help us learn qualities and skills to help us get along well with others.

We love you and hope that you will treat us the way you would want to be treated if you were unaware or just new to learning something or if you made a mistake.

You are an example and a model for us. Show us through your words and actions what kind of people we should be.




When discipline of correction is needed let it be done in love, helping us to understand why we are being disciplined.


We need your love and patience to feel good about ourselves and develop a positive self image.



Let us grow up in a nurturing, loving environment and remember to let us know when we are doing well.


"Of all the joys in life no other equals that of happy parenthood. Of all the responsibilities with which we struggle, no other is so serious. To rear children in an atmosphere of love, security and faith is the most rewarding of all challenges. The good result from such efforts becomes life's most satisfying compensation. Use the discipline love rather than the heartbreak of the discipline of terror. You fathers and you mothers, I know you love your children. I hope you treat them as if you love them. I know your patience wheres thin but I hope that you would restrain your anger. I do not believe that it is necessary to hurt children or beat them or do anything of that kind. My father never laid a hand on me in all my life except to bless me. I hope you keep nurturing and love your children leading them in light and truth. They are the most precious thing you have in all the world. Among all the assets you possess nothing is more precious than your children. You will grow old, even as I have grown old, and when you look around you will see that the greatest thing you have is the love, confidence and respect of your children. Fathers, control your tempers now and in all the years to come. Mothers,control your voices, keep them down. " President Gordon B. Hinkely

2011/09/01

Jada is Two











Our first born is two years old, time goes so fast. She is so smart. She knows her colors and is starting to count things correctly as well. She still calls herself two. Jada loves to eat chicken, carrots and eggs. She has learned to crack eggs and stir them and then an adult does the cooking.



For her birthday party we took her out to the corn maze just outside of lethbridge where they have a petting zoo. Everyone got a ice cream cone full of food to feed the animals. We all gave our cones to Jada. She got alot of attention from the animals with all that food. She absolutely loved the sheep and the chickens. They crowded on the other side of the fence to get the food she had. After the petting zoo we had lunch, presents and cake at our place. She loves, loves ice cream so we made her cup cakes cooked in ice cream cones and iced to look like ice cream with sprinkles. They were cute.

Jada's Favorite word right now is no (like so many other toddlers!) At least she says it very nice in her cute little girl voice. She seldom screams no unlike a lot of toddlers. She tries to copy almost every thing we say, but will say "no ..." The other day we said, "Jada its time for bed, its 7:30" (her normal bed time is about 7, but she got to stay up a little bit that day). Jada then said "No seven thirty". She tries to copy a lot of words, and she is getting a very good vocabulary.



Makayla is just over 5 months and she is really communicating. The other day we went over to my parents to have family home evening together and my brother nathan was bouncing Jada in the air and Makayla found it really funny. Have never heard her laugh like that.



Jada loves playing with her sister and Makayla loves the attention. Jada laughs at makayla and Makayla laughs with her, sooooo soooo cute.




Mike and I decided to get an x-box kinect to help with our goals to get more active. We decided together before we bought it that we would not get any x-box games that were not kinect (where your whole body is the controller) and we would have time limits (although that shouldn't be a problem, 1/2 hour on that thing you are pretty exausted). My mom said that she got the wii hoping it would help the family be more active and now only the inactive games are played so we didn't want that to happen.



Whoever is reading this and is like me and is leary of all video/computer games, let me tell you, it took alot of pondering and studying up on this to feel okay with this and now that we have it I am totally happy with it. When Mike and I got married we talked about how we wanted to raise our children and one thing that was super important to me was that we did not have video games in our house and I wanted really strict time limits for all inactive entertainment such as T.V., all things computer that are not homework/work, ect. He was fine with that and even sold his play station. There are people out there that would probably call me an extremist maybe I have only seen extreme examples but what makes me so leary about these types of entertainment is I have seen happy, active, striving towards goals and achievements, socially involved, helpful people get into these type of entertainments and totally change. Healthy goals and achievments are put off or stopped, they become lazy, stop doing any kind of work or helping out unless made to, start hanging out and joining in activities with people less and spend less time outdoors, start gaining weight and seem less happy and I have even seen people stop taking care of them selves. I have met very few people that are involved in such activities that don't spend way to much time on it and I have seen people trying to break their addiction to it and it seems equal if not more difficult than quiting smoking. I have seen people quiting smoking than it is incredibly difficult.




To me putting video games in my kids hands is just as bad or worse than putting a cigarette in their hands because it affects every aspect of their lives with alot more then health consequences but there are those as well. So now you know how I feel about those and different people will have different opinions but I must do what I feel is best for my family because my husband and I are fully responsible for the welfare of our children and ourselves as well. Mike is very supportive with this.



Pretty much all things are good when used correctly and all things are bad when used incorrectly. I have even seen reading too many books have negetive effects on peoples lives such as weight gain, social isolation and depression. I feel that Kinect allows us to reap the good benefits that video games have to offer with out the bad and that is that it is fun entertainment for the whole family that brings us together, enjoying each other in an active activity and like I said there is no way that too much time will be spent on it because it physically exhausts you in an half hour. It definetly does not make you lazy or socially isolate you. I love it and am happy with our decision.



Right now Mike and I are both getting alot of outdoor activity, walking, biking just about everyday, along with our at home muscle building workouts, but in the winter the kinect will help us get entertaining cardio exercise indoors when it is unplesant to spend alot of time outdoors. Did you know that dieting actually slows your metabolism (less you eat the less your body burns), eating certain foods and several other tricks you hear about raises your metabolism but only temporarily. But more muscle means higher metabolism all the time. Just having an active life style makes all the difference and you will actually start eating more and weighing less (kind of funny eh). Just a little tip for people trying to loose weight. Giving your body all the nutrients it needs is way better than trying to eat less. I like asian phylosophy, they consentrate way more on health then just looking good. I think or culture often puts looking good above health. The real truth is you take good care of your body and it takes good care of you and you will look and feel better than ever.




We recommend the game wipeout- it is highly active and entertaining.




Mike and I have found alot of common interests and spend alot of time doing things together as well as working towards goals together and feel our relationship is stronger than ever. He is such a wonderful husband and father. Next year we are going to take scuba diving lessons, get our certification and start exploring a whole other world that we have only ever seen on film. We are super excited about this. I really want to get a program for singing lessons that we can do together at home eventually (maybe around christmas), we didn't get to it this last time but next time we are in China we want to take erhu (a chinese musical instrument) lessons. Mike has really showed me how and taught me to live my dreams and now our dreams, if you want to do something you can do it just make a plan and a goal and do what it takes.