October 29, 2006

Some Photos from the race last Saturday...

This is our picture of the TV tower. Eli is on Mike's shoulders.

We are professional Tai Chi people.
For the Race, we were supposed to find something very unique for 10 yuan and get a photo with the seller. He did not want his photo, and everyone around us thought it was so funny.

Here is our driver, Jiang, imitating our special "antique market" purchase.
We were supposed to have a creative photo taken in front of the Nanjing Lion Statue. We found a grounds-cleaner, and he got us, but not the lion.(???)
We needed a silly photo with at least 30 bikes. Not hard to find.





This last week, I’ve had computer problems, again! I wasn’t able to upload photos to my blog page. I’ll try to re-cap a bit of what went on. Last Saturday morning, there was a school activity. I had signed the family up to participate, and it sounded like a good idea, until we had to get up and be there by 8:00am that morning! Well, it was a “Race, Around Nanjing”. We were given a map, and a list of places and tasks to fulfill at these places. We were to leave at 8:00am and return no later than 1:00pm. We really had a fun time, and actually found some places that we had never been. One of the sights was the old International School. It was fun for the kids to see where it used to be. I think they were very glad that they have a nice new school. The old one wasn’t so nice. We had Nicole’s friend Maggie with us. We did really well, and although the boys started to niggle (a new word I learned from my Aussie friends) each other toward the end, it turned out great. We ended up with third place, and, lucky us, we won some gift certificates to McDonalds. We gave one to Maggie and the rest to our driver. We figured he did most of the work, anyway.

Rachel and Nicole are heading out today and tomorrow to their trip-weeks with their school classes. Rachel went to Xi’an and Nicole will leave tomorrow to Hongzhou. They are very excited, and are both taking cameras, so I’m sure I’ll have some fun pictures to put on the blog.

On Friday night, was the school Halloween party. I don’t know how we got ourselves into this, but we were in charge of a story room for the middle and high school. Yes, it is impossible to find a story that will actually scare that age-group without going an evil route. So, Mike and I used the startle-factor instead. We were in a sound-proof band room, and we covered the instruments and drums with black cloth. Mike told the “Hook” story about a young high-school couple and a killer with a hook. Well, it wasn’t really that scary, but it was dark, and I was hiding behind some instruments and we would scream as loud as we could at the end. We did this over and over for an hour and a half. Our throats were so sore at the end! Most of the kids weren’t scared, but they were good sports. The middle-school boys had to act tough and all made a point that they were NOT scared, but the best groups were the Korean girls. They were hilarious! I swear they were scaring themselves. They would scream and whimper the whole time. Mike could hardly even get them to come into the room! He had to tell them at the end, that the story wasn’t real. Anyway, Mike was a good sport, and it was much less work than a haunted house!

Eli turns 5 this week. I can’t believe he is growing up so fast! He has asked for Cheeseburgers for his birthday dinner. He also requested a transformer cake, but I talked him into a chocolate bat. Happy Birthday Eli!

A Few More Indonesia and Singapore Pics...

The view from our back patio at Club Med.
Here, Mike is standing at the base, I mean on the base, of a tree in Bintan.


The boys loved riding the elephant one afternoon.

At the Singapore Aquarium, Rachel and I get cuddly with a Japanese Crab.
Our guide took our photo at the Aquarium. The kids had a great time. They had some neat animals.

Photos From Trip

The three girls get kisses!



Eli dancing with the dolphin.
Here is the pier in Bintan.
Here is a group-shot of the trapeze performers.
Rachel, Nicole, and Caitlin were in a fashion show.
Lonnie's favorite spot.
A really big lizard-over 2 feet
I'm king of...this big rock!
The kids had such a wonderful time.

My man at the beach
This is little India
.Nicole will probably kill me for putting this in, but she spilled her curry on her lap. It didn't really look like that...

Indonesia and Singapore Favorites:

Last Wednesday, we returned home from a 10 day trip to Indonesia, and Singapore. We had such a lovely time. I thought I would write down some of the highlights.

The first thing that must be mentioned is the Singaporeair plane. Everyone was so happy and excited about this. The attendants wear pretty Singapore dresses, the food is edible, and everyone had their own entertainment screens. Happy flight!

We went to a Club Med Resort on Bintan, and Island of Indonesia for one week. It had a beautiful private beach, good all-you-can-eat buffets, and plenty of things to do. What more could we ask for?

Jay and Eli spent the week playing for part of the day with the children's club. They did all sorts of activities, like swimming, playing at the beach, and one day there was even a parade and real elephant rides. They did archery and trapeze as well. But, I think their favorite part was learning to snorkel with Mom and Dad, and swimming, swimming, swimming. They were fish! It is fun to see how well they can swim, now. Better than me, I think.

Rachel, Nicole, and Caitlin had a wonderful time with the teen club. They had so many fun activities. They spent many hours perfecting their trapeze skills, and got quite good. Rachel and Nicole were in a show one night with their trapeze tricks. They did a lot of snorkeling, sailing, and sports. Even some Yoga. They were very involved with the performances as well, which included a fashion show, singing on-stage, and a play. The staff were very sad to see them go because of the great help they were in making things fun.

Mike and I, as you can see, actually had some free-time to relax, and get to know each other again:-) What could be better than that? We did snorkeling, sailing, and Mike taught me how to play tennis. It was fun for us to do things with the children, like snorkel, and watch their shows. There was even a chance for a walk along the beach in the full moon.

One morning we signed up for an excursion. I think because I always wanted to do this when I was young, we went to "swim with the dolphins". We were picked up at 8:00am, and drove on the very windy roads of Bintan for about an hour. This was an adventure in itself. The people of Bintan are very poor, and we saw some very humble circumstances. We also saw a bare-foot, bare-chested man with very large hair walking down the street with a machetti!! Every time we went into a town, we stopped at security, where they used mirrors to check for bombs under the cars. Wow, it was a different world! Well, we finally made it to this sad little dock, and climbed in a boat. It was a fiber-glass boat. Most of the chairs were broken,and there was hydraulic fluid leaking from the steering-wheel. We went very fast, over lots of choppy waves to a small island. It was a very exciting ride. Almost too exciting! Well, after all this, we arrived to our destination. A very run-down tired looking beach where they kept the dolphins. We actually got to get in with them for about an hour, though. We had a wonderful time playing and interacting with the dolphins. They kissed us, hugged us, and even danced with us. They did tricks for us, played catch with us. We even held one (they are very heavy). I think it's something we will always remember!

We had a wonderful experience attending Church in Singapore. We met with a branch the first Sunday, and it was terrific! We had no idea if we were going to find it or not, but we did. And the next Sunday, we went to a hotel, where they were playing Conference from the week before. It was really neat meeting with the Saints in Singapore, hearing the same thing we would hear in the U.S. or anywhere else in the world, like China.

Singapore is a huge beautiful country/city, with 4 million people and a huge Asian mixture of people. The stronghold the government has, is paying off as far as a nice, clean city goes. This is the place that will flog you for chewing gum, or not flushing a public toilet. There is a death sentence for drug possession. We weren't afraid of that law. We felt safe in that we brought no gum, and prayed the toilet wouldn't have flushing problems...just kidding. We really didn't worry about it. We'd heard it referred to as Disneyland with a death penalty. It sort of felt like Pleasantville. We had fun shopping, and we did some sight-seeing. A really fun thing, is that we were able to meet with a couple who served with Mike on his mission in Korea. Mike and I went to dinner with them, and I heard a lot about that time in his life. We, of course spent way too much at the bookstore, and stuffed a couple of food items into our bag, though they didn't have as many items as I'd hoped. I think the true highlight of the trip was eating at Carl's Jr. Not once, but twice. We ordered Hamburgers, fries, and a shake. YUMMY!

We all had a wonderful vacation and are now trying to get back into life!

Pearl Farm Day Trip

I went to see how they grow pearls with the International Club. It was very interesting. This photo is how they implant the pearl with tiny pieces of membrane from another clam to start the formation of pearls. They plant several into each pearl. Its is a pain-staking process. In one full work-day, 2 people can do about 120 clams.



This photo is the farmer lifting a rope to show us the implanted clams. They put 2 or 3 three clams in a net bag and hang them from a rope going across a pond. Each clam must wait for 5 to 8 years before the pearls are ready.


Here are some opened clams. People sit on small stools and remove the clams from the shells into buckets. Men come by and scoop up the clam shells and carry them to big piles.




These pearls are not polished or cleaned. They are in a bucket a worker has just dumped pearls into.
This little boy is one of the farmers child. He was very interested to see his photo.
Here is a mature rice field almost ready for harvest.

September 19, 2006

I thought I'd first share some of the "Do you know what I saw" conversation my friends and I have had this week:

In an airplane in China, they tell you what is going on in Chinese, and then they read a card in English. You can rarely understand it, but my friend heard this in the middle of the flight," Please sit down and fasten your seatbelt. We are preparing for take-off." A while later, everyone heard " We will be arriving somewhere at sometime." obviously, they were supposed to insert the correct city and time!

There was a lady mowing her lawn in a fancy skirt and sandals.

There was a woman driver with her car stopped in the middle of a busy road. Cars were making their way around her. Getting closer to her, you could see why she was stopped. She was busy text messaging, of course!

A truck was stopped in the middle of an intersection, under the power line. They were repairing a traffic light. The power was still on. There was a man balancing on a 20 foot ladder sitting inside the bed of the truck. The ladder was being held up by the electric cable.

Always something exciting.

Back to our life. Last week on Thursday, I was in my friend's car. I'm used to being in our van, with the sliding door. So, I didn't think to check before I started opening my door. A motor scooter was driving past very close and very fast! My door touched her bike. She over-corrected and tipped it over, breaking the mirror, and she scraped up her leg a little bit. I felt so bad! I got out, and wanted to tell her I was so sorry, and of course, pay for any damage. Well, she just kept yelling and yelling at me. Her friend came, and they spoke such rapid Chinese, I had a hard time understanding. They told me that they wanted a little bit of money to start, and I should give them my address and they would come for more. I said I wouldn't give them my address(I've heard horror stories about that) but that if they took official receipts to my husband's office, I would pay them. The little bit of money they wanted was 2000rmb! That is a HUGE amount of money! I laughed. They could easily by a new motor-scooter with that amount. Anyway, My driver and my friend's driver eventually settled on 500rmb. This was also very high. But, I had been standing there for over an hour, and needed to pick up the children. I couldn't see how to get out of it, so I paid. I cried all the way home! But I didn't cry in front of them, so I thought that was pretty good. I decided later that it could have been so much worse, and that I learned a lesson, and they had a really nice shopping trip with the money I gave them!

Well, you would think that was enough! But, for the first time of the week, Mike was coming home at a decent hour. It was raining, and the person behind them rear-ended them! And...It was in that same friend's car! We had traded, so that she could take some company around town that weekend. Mike spent over an hour at the police station, and didn't come home early. I'm just grateful he's OK.

The good news is, this week nothing has happened so far!

The kids have been so busy with sports. Rachel went to Shanghai this last weekend for Volleyball,and Rachel and Nicole go this weekend for Rugby. The girls and I are still at our morning runs. They are getting better and better. They will outrun me, I'm thinking, by the end of the year. Eli's favorite after school activity is cooking class, on Wednesdays. He comes home with yummy treats. He feels so big when he makes them (there isn't any real cooking involved). Jay loves basketball day. He was a lion in an assembly today. He really did a good lion imitation. Caitlin and I have started writing back and forth to each other in a journal. She saw this idea in the Friend, and it has been lots of fun!

We have been to the tailor the last couple of Tuesdays. The boys are having suits made. Those of you who know Jay, will know how very excited he is to have his suit. Eli is also excited, and can't stand that he has to wait. He really wants to watch them make it!

Well, just over one week to our big trip to Singapore and Indonesia! I think we are all very ready. Especially Mike. He has been working so long and hard these last few weeks. He will be so ready for a break!

Love to all of you! We miss you.

Please take a walk with me...

On a Thursday morning last week, a group of ladies from the International Club went on a walk to "explore" Nanjing. It is a monthly outing that I have wanted to join, and since Eli is now in school, can. It was a two hour plus walk, starting out along a river, and ending up at Lion Tower Hill. We saw so many incredible things, I thought you may like to see some of them:




These ladies are separating the good veggies from the bad at the wholesale vegetable garden we saw.

And the owner of this bike is ready for his delivery.
These men are laying cement for this road.
I absolutely love this picture. Chinese doors are so intriguing to me...What is behind it?

There was so much to see and purchase, if we wanted, at this market.
Meat anyone?
Dumplings for sale





A man offered the 7 of us a ride in his...um, vehicle, so how could we refuse? We tipped him nicely. Can you see the crowd we drew?













After cheating a little (because of our ride) we arrived at our destination...the foothills of Lion Tower, to eat our packed lunches, and talk about our very adventurous morning. It was a wonderful morning. Thanks for joining me!

Lucky Eli gets to add the chocolate chips.
Here, we are making those yummy cookies.
The breath-taking view that makes the stairs worth it.
Here is the mausoleum.
Heading down for my second climb.
Mike looking like a "biker" on our bike ride. It is VERY HOT and HUMID

Love to Dance

The time is flying by again. Why is it that as soon as school starts, the weeks just pass before your eyes? I never thought that when I was in school. A few things that happened this last week:

On Wednesday, I had a friend who was sick. I decided to make some soup and breadsticks for her. I asked the driver to please take me to the store, and then pick up the food when it was ready, and take it to my friend. When we got to the house, after going to the store, Jiang asked if he could please watch me cook. I thought he was joking, but no. So Jiang came in, while Wan (our ayi) was ironing clothes in the kitchen (it is not lost on me how spoiled this all sounds, having an ayi and a driver). They both watched me make the chicken vegetable soup, and the breadsticks. They were intrigued, and discussed every move I made, especially with the breadsticks. They have never seen an oven work. I was like their child, as they watched proudly, making comments and talking about me as I went. They were making jokes about coming to work for us when we move back to America, and we were teaching each other words in Chinese, and English. The breadsticks were a hit, but Jiang didn't want to try the cream soup. He informed me he doesn't eat milk with vegetables. Hmm...

On Saturday morning, Mike and I decided to wake up early and go for a bike ride to Purple Mountain. It isn't too close, so I guess only Mom and Dad Russon can know to be impressed by our ride:-) Anyway, don't be too impressed, the mountain isn't like the Wasatch Front or anything. Its more like really big hills. Well, we had a great time. We went to Sun Yat San's mausoleum. It is a pretty impressive structure, and beautiful, with the trees and the view. There are 400 stairs leading to the tomb, which my friends and I have been known to make an exercise excursion out of by doing the stairs several times. I did them twice that morning, but Mike refused. He just didn't see the enjoyment. We got back in time to get the kids breakfast, and I can't wait to go again!

On Monday night, for Family Night, we watched part of the Founding Fathers movie Mike's Grandpa Smith gave us for Christmas. It was great. We are also learning the Pledge of allegiance. Eli was supposed to share a food from the USA today at school, so we all made Toll House Cookies as well. It was great having our "Patriotic" night, and we will continue for the next few Mondays. While the kids are learning all sorts of wonderful things about the world, they aren't getting all of our U.S. history, and we don't want them to miss out!

Tonight, Mike had meetings, so he stayed late to work. Poor guy missed out on our dance party. We turned on our recessed-blue (yes, blue) rope lights and danced to the great 80's music that Emily burned for us, as well as some Bangles, and show tunes. Poor Mike! We all know how he loves to dance. This, at least, I am proud to have passed on to my kids...They all LOVE to dance, like their Mamma! We may not be good, but we have heart.

Play Ball

Mike had promised the boys all week to ride bikes to the school and hit some balls and play catch. Jay has a strong arm, and he was worried about the windows in our neighborhood:-) The boys were beyond excited. Jay had planned out what he, Eli, and Mike were going to wear, down to the caps. The boys came in at 6:20am, ready to go! They were disappointed to have to wait. Well, I thought that Mike would want to take the boys himself, but I was mistaken. I was quite honored to be included in this male ritual, that is until I learned why I was invited. Mike was to be the pitcher (obviously, he doesn't remember I played pitcher on the 53rd ward women's softball team 15 years ago...Or maybe he does) Eli the catcher, and Jay up to bat. I, was apparently brought along to be the outfielder. Yes, the outfielder on a full size pitch. And, did I mention that Jay hits hard? Well, I certainly got my exercise for the day!!!! We started our playing, when the guard came over to ask us to move our bikes. You need to know, that there were no cars in the parking lot. He wanted us to take them all the way over to the back of the school to the bike park. We made a compromise and parked them in a parking stall. This way, he didn't lose face, and we didn't walk our bikes all the way over there for nothing. We had a great time playing. You know, everyone got a turn to hit, except me. I wonder if I'll be lucky enough to be invited again??!

** I think it should be noted that Mike and I saw a bike with three huge TV's strapped on the back. I realize that the record is 4 TV's on a scooter, but points need to be given for a man-powered machine, so a special category should be made.

Jay, Caitlin, Nicole, and Rachel were all asked to speak in church today about how they grew spiritually over the summer. All of the girls wrote their own talks, and all of them did a great job. Some of the BYU group came this week, so there was a larger crowd than expected. Instead of the 15 of us that had been coming, there were about 20. Anyway, their talks were full of experiences they had with all of our family back home this summer. Thank you for being such wonderful examples, friends, and mentors to all of us. We love you!