Happy Birthday Rachel! Big 16!

Wow, can you believe I have a 16 year old? I sure can't. Rachel is excited to be 16. She doesn't have her driver's license, and there isn't really a lot of chances to date, here, but at least it's not a big NO! Right? Saturday night, Mike and I took her to dinner to celebrate. She chose a little French resaurant in town called The Five Senses. We had a good time. She had just returned home from Yangshou the night before, where she had trip-week with all of the other grade 10 kids. She had a good time. She got phone calls from her Grandmothers on her birthday which meant a lot. She got notes and calls all day long. We sent some muffins and fruit and hot chocolate to seminary on her birthday morning. The Priestley's gave her 2.5rmb for every week she has been alive. That was exciting. She had chosen very specific food for the day. She wanted guacamole and tortilla chips (very hard to get) which we all enjoyed. Of course, Rachel had her own bowl. For dinner, she wanted chicken pillows, and asparagus. For the dessert, I made a black-forest cake, but had Strawberry pie filling instead of the cherry I thought I had. Well, she seemed to enjoy it. Her friend J.J. came over to wish her a happy birthday and stayed for cake that evening. I think she had a great day. On Monday, her friends made a cake for her. This Friday night, she will share a birthday dinner of pizza with her friend Pao from Germany, who also has a birthday. They will all have pizza with their friends.

Rachel has matured a lot this year. School is getting quite involved, and she is picking things up very well. She is a wonderful part of our family. We love you Rach!

Today we all went and had our shots. Yep, we've been here long enough to need boosters on just about everything. The children were all very brave :-)

Caitlin is off to Shanghai this weekend to play in a Soccer Tournament for middle school. She really enjoys sports, and is doing quite well (for coming from my genes-well, I know my brothers and dad are great with sports, but games like soccer and basketball, or baseball and I have never really been compatable).

Here are a couple of photos from Rachel's birthday. Also, I put a couple of photos Rachel and Nicole took on their trip-weeks. They are pretty good photographers...





Rachel will make a scrapbook of her trip to Yangshuo as an assignment for school. Here are some of her photos:








Nicole's class did a photo contest. Here are some of her best photos:











Caitlin wanted to take photos on her camping trip to Wuxi, but she had the old camera. Unfortunately it didn't work. She had a good time, and learned to use GPS and lash a bamboo raft.

Happy Birthday Eli

This is our month of birthdays...Starting with Eli. Yesterday, on November 1st Eli turned 7 years old. He was so excited for his birthday. He wanted legos and, well, just about anything he saw at the newer Toys-R-Us store we have in Nanjing. He was very pleased with his gifts! He suffered through some family photos (this was the only weekend we could do it) and then chose to go to Papa John's Pizza for lunch. He really enjoyed that. He asked for alphabet soup that I make for his birthday dinner, then we played a couple of fun games. He has been busy ever since working on his legos, etc.

Happy Birthday Eli!


We played the game where you have to put on gloves, a scarf, and ear-muffs while people roll the dice. Then, as they keep rolling, you try with a knife and fork to open the package, and cut one small square at a time to eat, before the next person rolls a six and continues on where you left off. Very funny!




Next, we played a game my Australian friends told me about called Fluffy Bunny. You see how many marshmellows you can stuff in your mouth and still be able to say, "fluffy bunnies". Well, all I can say, is that those who have Mike's genes did very well in this game! I felt a little sorry for my Australian friends...they only know how to play fluffy bunny and don't know what S'mores are. I think we got the better part of the deal... Well, the game was pretty funny, too.





Other exciting things that have gone on in the last couple of weeks, are a trip to Tianjin, by Rachel and Nicole for the high school volleyball tournament. They didn't win many matches, but they had a lot of fun. Nicole received a bite from what the doctor thinks was a spider. That was pretty exciting. The poison spread to about 5 inches in diameter, which was a little scary, but a little cool, too. I think she may be disappointed it is shrinking. She said, " If they have to cut of my leg, can I hold it?" That's our Nicole.
The dots on her leg are permanent marker that the doctor put on so that we could track if it grew...it did.





We went to the Halloween party at the school the other night. Jay and Eli dressed up and a vampire and Ninja. Nicole was "retro" of course, and she played 3 songs with her band. She is the drummer, and is getting pretty good! Especially for never really playing before. Caitlin dressed up, but I don't really know what to call her. Was in all orange and black. I wore all black and wore a really long dark brown wig. Nicole and I danced (there was sort of a dance going on) and it was really funny, because all of the kids kept coming up to me and staring, trying to figure out who I was. I thought it was really brave of Nicole to keep dancing with me when they found out it was her Mom!

Rachel, Nicole and Caitlin will all head out for their trip-week. Rachel goes to Yangshuo tomorrow, Caitlin will camp with Outward Bound in Wuxi, and Nicole will leave on the night-train tonight to JingdeZhen. They should all have a good week.

Well, the next birthday of the Month is Rachel, who will be 16! My baby is 7 and my oldest is 16. It's so hard to believe.

Our Road Trip

Imagine more than 4 times the population of the United States traveling at one time! If you do this, you will understand why it was impossible for us to get train tickets on the last day of the holiday. Everyone goes back to the city on Sunday afternoon, so they can go back to work the next morning. We had planned to go and see a family that is in our branch. We wanted to see where they are, see the tombs there, but especially have church with them on Sunday in their little group (just the five of them). They live in Xuzhou, not to be confused with Suzhou (the town which you probably visited with us if you have come to China). Xuzhou is a small industrial town of around 7 million about four hours north of Nanjing. Well, Mike DOES have his Chinese driver's license, though he really hates to use it. Not many things frighten my 6 foot 5 inch husband. But, driving in China makes him a little skiddish. We decided to drive the car there ourselves. We didn't want to make Jiang have to work this holiday. He deserved time off.

Mike printed off a very non-detailed map from the internet. The girls had come home from Xi'an the night before, so we all piled into the van. It was my job to navigate us through all of the craziness they call road signs. Most of the road was a nice toll-road, and fairly straight-forward. Not too many cars. But, the signs are very confusing, and all I can figure, is that they think differently than we do out west. Once we actually got onto the right road, we did very well. There were beautiful farms all along the way. They don't have the big tractors like you see in the U.S. It's more the old style.

Road Trip!


I thought this was worthy of inclusion because we've never gotten gas by ourselves before! Well, here in China.


This sign was on the outside of the bathrooms at the rest stop. We totally agree that you have to have a sense of humor to use them, especially if you recently had hip surgery and aren't as flexible as you used to be!


We have never felt so welcome at a rest stop!

We arrived safely in about four hours. The Priestley's were very gracious, and we had lunch, and then went to the Han tombs. These are small warriors, also made of terracota. It was very interesting, the most interesting part being the actual tombs that we were able to walk into. They were made of huge, hand-cut stones. They were so smooth and straight! It was a neat thing to see. The next day, we went to do some rock-climbing. It was lots of fun, and everyone, except me because of my hip, tried it. I was really proud of the children and how brave they were. The girls have rock-climbed before in a gym, but this was the first time on real rocks! It was so great of the Priestleys to take us. What a great activity.

Here is Emporer King Chu Liu Zhu (who reigned between 128 BC-116 BC) The tomb was made for him and his wife in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-24 AD)
This is a jade burial armor that was made for the king.


Pottery found in the tombs


We got a cart to take us around the huge park because of me.


If you can't read this, it says "Keep silence"

These gentlemen asked to have photos with the girls.


That little red dot is Jay. Way to climb!


Caitlin is ready!



Here is Eli, repelling down after his climb.


Coli-way to climb


See how close Rach is to the top?




Here we are with Tammy, Ron, Derek, Emily and Danni Priestley.


The next day was fast Sunday, so we had fast and testimony meeting with them. It was a really sweet experience with them in their living-room, just the two families, sharing our testimonies. We had a wonderful time with all of them and really appreciate their hospitality. We did well getting home, except as we got close to Nanjing, they had some crazy signs again, and we ended up going the very long way around. It took over an hour extra to get home. We were just glad to arrive back. At one point, we had no more ping-ying (Chinese written in the western alphabet) signs, and just had Chinese charactors. We knew we were out of our league with this! We immediately back-tracked.

We had a great time, and I was quite impressed with Mike as he was able to swerve around people, carts and animals suddenly showing up out of the bushes on the sides of the freeway. Unfortunately for Rachel, this made it impossible for her to practice her driving skills and get several hours in. It was a great road trip.

Rachel, Nicole, and Caitlin in Xi'an

This National Day holiday, Rachel, Nicole and Caitlin were able to go and visit the Starfish Foster-home in Xi'an. We met Amanda, the founder, a couple of years ago when she brought a couple of sweet little kids to Nanjing for cleft-palate surgery. She has devoted all of her time and energy to taking care of children who need medical attention. She works hard to get them the medical care they need and get things in order for adoption. When Amanda was here, she invited Rachel and Nicole to come and help at the foster home when they could. I felt that this year, the girls were old enough to go on their own. Amanda had close to 20(yes in one apartment) children there while the girls were there. They stayed for one week and worked close to 12 hours a day...holding babies, and helping change and feed them. They each came home wanting us to adopt them all! What a fantastic chance for them to fall in love with these children. Here is what they had to say about their experience:





My Orphanage experience:

Coli:

When we, that is Rachel, Caitlin and I, arrived in Xian to help those little orphans I was surprised by how excited I was! We arrived in the normal sized apartment and were greeted with cries, chaos and the smell of milk and poopy diapers everywhere. It was very overwhelming, but at the same time as weird as it may sound, comforting ( I think it is the result of my “motherly instincts” us ladies were born with or something, because I cant come up with any other reason for why a poopy diaper would make me happy). The babies were more than adorable! For instance there is Sean who loves the word "banana" and gets ecstatic when the wiggles is turned on ( even though they watch it about 100 times a day!) and then there is Katelyn who won't look at you, but when you hold her, she stops squirming and glances at you from time to time when you aren’t looking. The nannies did most of the dirty work, like feeding, clothing, and changing the diapers of the babies,( we did do a fair amount though) but we had what I think was the most important job, to show love to them. After living in the big city orphanage where it is one nanny to 27 babies, where there is over 600 of them, you wouldn't expect them to be shown too much love. My heart was full of love and service the whole time! The love I had for those babies was overwhelming me almost to the point of tears. My respect for all the things parents do for us expanded greatly. I don’t think I could have come up with a better way to spend my vacation then serving those cute little orphans! *I am still working on getting my parents to adopt at least one! (if not all 19 :-P but that will take a little more convincing!)*





Caitlin:

Going to Amanda’s Orphanage made me think more about how much God loves Each of us and how much he cares about us and those adorable orphans. This has been a great experience because we grew a lot of love for them in the short week we were there. And we were very sad when we had to leave. I also gained more appreciation for the mothers who have children and need to take care of them. Even though I’m not a mother and I won't be one for a while. Haha. I figured out that it is a lot of hard work (especially when all of them want to have attention and want to be held all the time) But it is worth it!! At the end of each day my sisters and I would be so tired, but every night I wasn’t upset. I was happy because I knew that it was to help. And it was Fun!!!
I LOVE those little kids! And i am so happy that I had the chance to go and help out at the Orphanage in Xi’an.




Rachel:

Xi'an was the most amazing experience ever! I had so much fun! Getting to know the kids was the coolest thing. I grew to love them all like my own kids. They all have the sweetest spirits and they all have such personality. I learned a lot about mothering and about how hard it is sometimes. We were really exhausted most of the time. But it was way worth it. I miss them all already. Now I just have to convince Mom and Dad we need 20 new family members!

September 17, 2008

We are busy into the school year. The BYU groups have come, and we have a decent-size branch! The girls are happy to look at the cute BYU boys:-) Life is good. A few things that have been going on lately:

Nicole is in a girl-band. She is the drummer. They have 2 guitarists, a singer, and her. They entered the school talent show (which is hard to get into) and made it. Nicole's friend Simone wrote the song. It seemed like a piano recital evening. There were also some painful vocal solos, and a couple of group dances. So, after sitting through to the 2nd to last act, they came on...Nicole cool in her silver jacket. Unfortunately, they had problems with the amplifier, so we couldn't hear the music too well. But, we could here the singer, and Nicole. She played that cymbal and the drums well...especially for only having 6 months of lessons in 6th grade! They may play some songs at the Halloween party so that the school can actually hear the music with the amps working. I wanted to put some video on but I can't figure it out. Maybe next time.


At the beginning of the school year, the kids each picked an activity that they would like to do with the family. So, we schedule in times, maybe a Saturday, or a holiday to do the activity. Caitlin was in charge of our first activity (keep in mind, that the activities can't be too physical yet...they have this Mother who can't do much). Caitlin chose to have "American Day"...this included going to the new Papa John's Pizza. After that, we went to the Dairy Queen (not new, it's been here since we came) for a blizzard. Is that what they have at Dairy Queen? Anyway, it was a thick ice-cream shake. Yummy!

Eli is thinking about the special "Peking Duck" pizza that is being offered today. Hmmmm No thanks!




This last Monday was Autumn Moon Festival. It is the holiday where China celebrates the harvest and the coming of Autumn. It's the holiday when they all eat lots of moon cakes. Well, this time it was Eli's turn to pick. Eli wanted to go to Toys R Us, another newer store in Nanjing. Can you tell the children are excited about American stuff? Anyway, his idea was that everyone would get money and buy something for themselves. Mom and Dad had to ruin that idea, and said we would purchase something for the family to go home and do together. He was placated by us telling him he could look around for birthday ideas. Boy did he come up with some birthday ideas! Practically the whole store, of course. First we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant; Zen. We ate lots of yummy dumplings and noodles. After browsing through Toys R Us, we decided to buy a Jenga-copy and play "Jenga with a Twist". Everyone wrote something you had to do on one of the blocks, and it if you pulled out that block, you had to do it. It was really funny, and fun.

Here we are at the shopping center


I picked the "pretend to die" block and luckily I had Eli's help to kill me


Nicole picked "stand on your head for 30 seconds". She found out that isn't so easy because of a huge head-rush!


Mike picked the "balance all of the pillows on your head" block. Too bad we didn't record his rendition of "Roll'em" he had to do after I picked a lucky "you get to pick someone to do whatever you choose" block!


So, good news. I'm using my cane now...the beautiful flowered one. It's so lovely. I am doing a little better each day. I am walking without it quite a bit at home. I just use it to go out. I go to the pool and do exercises and swim. I'm sure I will continue to get stronger. I am so grateful for all of the prayers on my behalf. Especially Jay and Eli. Every prayer they give, they ask Heavenly Father to bless their Mommy's hip and that she will walk again.