Happy Easter!

Spring is here, and it is turning out to be a beautiful one. The leaves are starting to bud, and it is more and more green. The last week and a half has been busy. Caitlin and Nicole were both in Shanghai last weekend for a volleyball tournament. Caitlin found out this week after practicing so hard that she will get to do her dance in the School talent show. Eli made it through another swimming lesson with blue lips from being so cold! Poor guy. The Chinese hotel doesn't think it's healthy to turn up the heat. Jay is enjoying playing basketball outside. I was really happy to get Mike home last Friday afternoon after having him gone to South Africa for the week. We are looking forward to enjoying the Easter weekend, though we don't get any time off. We are so grateful for our Savior and what he has done for us. Especially for the opportunity we have to be an eternal family. I am especially grateful that I have the knowledge of his great sacrifice as I look around and realise that so many people don't. This year we get to try to make our own egg coloring, and I couldn't really find any Easter candy, but found some candy the kids will like in Shanghai. Luckily, they are pretty flexible these days...


Here is a little walk I took the other day. I just had to find out what the mellow was. As you can see by the little yellow happy face on the tree, it must be a great place!


I thought I may be getting near the "mellow" when I saw all of the trees being planted. They will plant grass and huge trees like this in just a couple of days.



Ah...this must be the "mellow"!


Here is a fruit and nut market we visited last week. In the morning it is so busy you can hardly walk anywhere. While I was here, I had short sleeves on. It was a warm day. One lady with her "sanitary gloves" on for handling the fruit, came over and felt my arm, rubbing it up and down. This gave about 4 other workers the go-ahead to come and do the same. They were asking me over and over again, " Aren't you cold?". They thought it was hilarious when I said no. They are all still in their long underwear and coats or heavy jackets!



Right off of the back of my bedroom balcony, there is a gorgeous magnolia tree that has been in bloom this last week. Nicole took some fantastic photos of it.




Happy Easter!

March 2008

Wow! A busy couple of weeks! The kids are busy with sports and school. We went to Shanghai last weekend for our district conference, which is just like stake conference. The China International District has now been split into 2. The Beijing District and now the Shanghai District. It was really a special weekend to be a part of all of that. Mike and I were also able to get our temple recommends renewed, which was wonderful. We took the train early Saturday morning, and went straight to the home/church where the Pudong branch meets for interviews. We had a fun afternoon with the children, and Mike went to the Leadership session. I met him there later for the Adult session. The next morning we all went to the conference. The girls were asked to sing in the youth choir right before the conference started. They were pretty nervous since they'd never practiced, but they faked it well. This afternoon Michael took off for South Africa again. He found out he was leaving on Friday afternoon. The unfortunate thing is that we left our passports in the hotel safe last week, so he had to fly out of Shanghai instead of Nanjing so he could pick them up! Poor guy! I was glad he wad able to get them, though.


Well, I thought that this blog, I would write down a few things I've observed this week. These are honestly very typical occurrences for any day, if not the same exact things, very similar ones:

On an early-morning walk to Xixia lake, I could hear every group of people I passed talking about me like I didn't know what they were saying. They think they are so funny, and they laugh hysterically at themselves. I think I've talked about Xixia lake before. This is where they swim every day of the year, no matter what the weather. But, there seems to be a ritual you have to follow to participate. You have to yell really loudly before you jump into the water. I'm not sure why they do this, maybe they just hope the water will get warmer if they yell at it. My favorite is watching the ladies in these little shower-curtain things they put around themselves while they change. Pretty inventive! A man wearing business-clothes and a pair of converse goes jogging by. A woman is singing at the top of her lungs.

The workers came to help me hang some pictures, etc. They used their dirty fingers to put marks on the wall for drilling. Today was fairly successful. They only need to repair one wall, and even though the shelves aren't straight, the stuff won't slide off.

I went for a walk with several foreign women to the Plum Blossom Festival. Every year, my friend Julie and I have gone. At the top of the hill, there are men dressed in old style with the old Sedan-style chairs that they carry. They give rides to people and play music for a small fee. The first year, they begged us to ride, and we had a great time. The next year, they recognised us, and we hadn't planned on doing it, so didn't bring any money. They insisted we still have a ride. Then, this week, the man ran up to Julie and I and practically hugged us! I'm so surprised he recognised us. He just kept smiling and calling us his friend. Julie and I actually had a ride together in the same chair, which I think just about killed them (we were pretty heavy). We did pay this time. We then convinced all of our friends to ride as well, so I'm pretty sure he likes us even more, now.

Driving to dinner, narrowly missing hundreds of people on bikes or walking, my driver hardly takes notice of the girl who is vomiting out of the taxi-window in front of us.

The meal Rachel, Nicole, Caitlin, their friends and I ate: a vegetarian place, where they make fish and hamburger, even sausage out of tofu and who knows what else that isn't meat. It is actually pretty amazing, and entertaining, if nothing else. The man highly suggested a "special" dish...I said OK (I can only claim that I was overwhelmed with the huge amount of food on the menu, and I had no clue as to what it was). This dish was 20.00, pretty expensive to me, and extremely expensive to them. I wonder what they thought when I was the only one who would try the black fungus with flower petals...and that was only because he was standing there waiting for me to try it!

On a walk in a busy area of Plum Blossom Hill, I saw something that looked like an animal sitting next to a lady on a bench. Next thing I know, she picks it up and starts coming it with her pick. It is her wig!


Mike called me on his way home from work, to tell me he was stuck, waiting for 2 cows to cross in front of them. If you've seen where we live, it is a HUGE city. I don't know if I've ever seen a cow!

The taxi that drove through us and another car to drive onto the off-ramp of the freeway.

About one minute later, same off-ramp, a huge bus BARELY missing us, with honestly no less than 100 people stuffed in it.


As we get close to home, I see 2 little 3-wheel motor-carts with families sleeping with all of their belongings in the back. I feel so grateful I am going home to a warm house.

Here are a few random photos:

It was "Bling" day at school last Friday. I really don't think you could get away with this in the U.S., but here, it's lots of fun for the kids.


This is a photo of the plum blossoms that I took one morning. They are really beautiful.


Here is Rachel and her much improved high-school team. They won many of their games in the tournament. Rach is getting better every year!



OK, Kell, this photo is for you. You said there weren't many photos of Mike and I in our Indonesia Blog, so I put this one in. Heidi and Creed introduced us to "lime squash". Lime juice in soda water...yummy!

Our trip to Indonesia

We had a fantastic time with the Millers in Jakarta! It was so fun to meet Heidi, Creed, Nash, Grant, Luke and Mallory at the beautiful hotel! We spent the first four days relaxing, and having lots of fun in Bali with all of them. The grounds of our hotel were absolutely beautiful. Bali is so green and lush. The kids loved boogie-boarding in the ocean. We really enjoyed some fantastic food. There was plenty of time for swimming in the pools, and don't worry...Heidi and I got in some great shopping. We also went to a beautiful water park with really fun slides. The landscaping was incredible. I hope you will forgive me for the length of this huge blog entry! I just had too many photos, and believe me, I narrowed it down!


On the first day we went to a beautiful Hindu temple up on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It was incredible. The hindu have reverence for monkeys, so there were monkeys roaming the entire temple grounds. Eli learned to listen to his Mom when one of them bit him! Luckily it didn't break skin, or it would have been an entirely different vacation. We watched a famous traditional hindu performance that was very interesting with men using their voices as an orchestra for the entire hour performance. This is Rachel and Mallorie with one of the performers.




A highlight of the trip was the rafting trip we went on. We were just in awe that we were actually rafting down the jungle! There were actually lots of white-water rapids only a level 2 or 3, but it made lots of excitement. Especially when Mike flew over and almost pushed me out of the raft! There were some amazing sculptures along the sides of the river, as well as some beautiful water-falls. They even let Mallorie come, though they said she wouldn't be insured. We all wondered exactly what we were all insured for...




Driving through Bali was beautiful.

The adults got to go out one evening while the older kids babysat. We went down the beach to a fish restaurant. They sat us at a table near the water, which was great until the tide started to come in. We had to move up 2 tables and were scrambling to get our flip-flops before we lost them. Don't Heidi and Creed look like they are having a romantic meal? Sorry guys, I couldn't resist adding your cute photo!

The Balinese people live in the most interesting compounds. They live in extended family dwellings with a big wall around the outside. The inner buildings are both indoors and out. Each compound has their own little temple, and they pray many times a day. They give offerings every day. Every home I saw had this same look to it. It was really beautiful.



We spent 4 1/2 wonderful days in Jakarta at the Millers home. They were so great to make us feel right at home. We have missed our Miller-Wadley thanksgivings that we used to have in Michigan, and Heidi actually did a Thanksgiving dinner with ALL the trimmings on Sunday! Wow, it was fantastic. Then we enjoyed late-night pie parties almost every night until we left! It was really fun for the girls to see the school their. We attended their branch in Jakarta, which was really nice. Rachel actually was able to attend early-morning seminary with the small group that meets from the branch. She really enjoyed that, and the four boys aparently commented more than ever before! Heidi, the girls and I went and had a wonderful facial and pedicure at the spa. We endulged in Crispy Cream Donuts, and Cold Stone Icecream. The girls found some great buys at some real outlets Heidi took us to.


We could not have a get together without the movie done by all of the kids! This year it was done in the Millers' pool with a Jaws/David Hasslehof theme!???


I couldn't resist this cute photo of Mallorie in the little Chinese outfit we brought her. She did lots of Kungfu for us, along with many other fantastic song and dances!


Heidi took us to a really fun Safari. The kids loved it. Here are some fun photos from our outing.




We thought this was so funny...the bear was trying to say something important to the ranger. The ranger would not look at him. Sorry about the reflexion from the window, we were a little too chicken to roll it down!

There were really funny signs like this all around the park. I was careful cause I sure didn't want to lose my hand to a camel! And, we wondered if all of the signs were based on actual occurances!

Of course, the highlight of the safari was when we got to hold baby animals! We knew that this was a rare opportunity.










We had quite the exciting trip back to Bali, where we were to spend our last 2 nights. After being delayed over 4 hours, we finally started our trip to Bali. About 30 minutes into the flight, we heard an announcement that said due to technical difficulties, the plane needed to turn back to Jakarta. That is not what you like to hear about your plane! I'm just glad they had the smarts to turn us around. We went back, and were put on another flight. I had booked the Novatel hotel on the internet and pre-paid. We arrived at the hotel around 1:00am. The hotel had given away our "standard" rooms. Well, they only had pool villas left, and told us they would put us there for one night and then move us to the standard rooms. Mike said that we wanted to stay wherever they put us because it's hard to move around so much. Because it was their fault, they left us in the two connecting pool villas for both nights! Talk about luxury! We were in Heaven! The kids thought they were movie-stars, I think. The bathrooms and living areas were outdoors under large straw roofs. It was amazing! The perfect way to end a trip of a lifetime!

More Snow For Nanjing

This week it has snowed more in Nanjing than it has in 50 years. It has taken the city totally by surprise. The entire country has been blown into a frenzy with snow and bad weather. Trains have been shut down, electricity outs, shortages on food and gasoline in many areas. It has happened at the worst time possible with Chinese New Year starting and everyone wanting to get home to their families. That is what you do for Chinese New Year. You go home to see family. They say numbers equivilant of the population of England, Germany, and France together, travel all at once. For many migrant workers it is the ONLY chance in a year they get to go home to see their family members. Many Fathers and Mothers work in a different city and see their children once a year. Thousands of people have been stranded at train stations, in buses on freeways, etc. Here in Nanjing, thankfully, we have only been inconvenienced. The children have been home from school all week. They told employees at Mike's work to stay home Monday and Tuesday. Taxis have been impossible to get. This morning, our driver spent two hours driving around the city to try to find gasoline. He then waited in line for 2 hours to get it.

We will be heading out to Bali and Jakarta Indonesia on Monday. We are really looking forward to seeing our great friends, the Millers. We are pretty excited about the whole trip. It's snowing now, but supposed to stop tomorrow morning. We have train tickets to Shanghai where our flight originates from, in case the freeway is shut down. It will definately be an adventure.

I thought I would share a few photos of the Nanjing airport when it snowed. Give it to them for creativity! We got these off of their websight. Also, I'm adding a couple more snow photos.








This shows about how much snow we got in one 24 hour period. It's been so mild here before now, that you can see the poor blossoms got a shock.





Here are a couple of common scenes in Nanjing. The first is in the department store. Free movies in the TV section! The second photo shows the unlucky guy who got to sit in the back on a COLD day!