GO UTES!!!

We just got home from the Utah vs Gonzaga Basketball game. It was awesome!!! Final score 64-63 Utah. I can't believe I didn't go to a single U of U sporting event the last two years of school. I was definitely missing out.

Frosbitten

Chris just returned from skiing with a frostbitten nose...

Merry Christmas Everyone

We want to wish y'all a Merry Christmas.

Chris has been enjoying not being in school and being able to ski whenever he wants. The gal at Snowbird was sweet, but very firm with him saying "you are WAY too old for the family pass (he's 26). But I'll be very generous, this is the LAST year you can use it." WaHOO! Free skiing for him this season.

I have wrapped so many Christmas presents it's crazy! My mom has 13 grandkids and she ran out of time to wrap all their presents. I literally spent all day the 23rd wrapping presents. Over 30 of them. I'd have to say I'm almost a pro. Here's a snapshot of some of the presents. My favorite are the name tags that I made. My mom has been getting lots of complements on them when people come over. I just had to brag for a minute.

Work had been really slow lately. I don't usually mind because it means less sick kids in the hospital over the holidays. Hopefully I won't have to work tomorrow. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

We hope everything is going well with all of you. Please keep in touch.

incessant noise

I am going crazy!!! I have been dealing with chainsaws and a loud tree shredder for days. All I want to do on my days off is sleep in a little, but NO! They start at 8am and never stop. They have some sort of loud equipment outside of every window. I was hoping to get a nap in the basement, but the sound just reverberates louder down there. They're supposed to be around for two weeks. I don't know what I am going to do.

Happy Thanksgiving

We just want to wish everyone the best today. Don't eat too much!

Aren't y'all glad the election is over?

Hallelujah

He looks to have the vote South of the Border too

Click on the pictures to enlarge





Photos courtesy of twitpics

My brother is running for VP-Write him in

Photos Courtesy of twitpics

I miss you dao xiao mian

Now that the weather is colder I'm really craving my favorite soup from China. I am really missing it and as far as I know there aren't any Uighur (a Muslim ethnic group in China) noodle places in SLC. If anyone within the reaches of this blog knows where I can get some, please let me know. My taste buds are in major with drawls and I'm kinda going a little crazy. Thanks for your help in this most important matter.

If anyone out there is still checking our blog (I've been a major slacker), I thought I'd let you know what we've been up to. Chris is studying furiously for the GRE. He's taking it this coming Saturday. Applications to grad schools will start soon if he likes his scores. I've been taking lots of naps on my days off as I've been plagued with Epstein Barr Virus since August (it's what causes Mono, but I don't have Mono). I'm still more worn out that I want to be, but who knows now if I'm just used to taking naps or still have it. I'm not in the mood to pay for another blood test. I really am fine, just complaining.

Chris' brother and wife were up from AZ for six weeks. We were able to spend some time with them and enjoyed every minute of it. We miss them when they're gone.

I finally broke down and bought a new straightener. I know, super exciting! Mine had a short in the cord which required me to hold the cord in just the right position to allow the straightener to get hot and subsequently power off when I picked it up. I would get so frustrated and ornery in the mornings. I decided it was best for my marriage if I bought a new one. Hair styling goes much smoother these days.

Other than that, life has been pretty uneventful. I wish I had more I could share, but thankfully nothing too crazy is going on in our lives. I'm sure we'll have another update soon, especially after Chris takes his test. Wish him luck!!!

Hospital Blues

Make sure to have a good relationship with your nursing instructor. You never know when she'll be you mom's Nurse Practitioner in the ICU.

We're going on day seven of my mom being in the hospital for what should have been a five to seven day stay. She's doing well but just taking a long time to recover. She had major abdominal surgery last Friday and it has been a roller coaster since then. We're grateful for some of the wonderful nurses she's had and for her doctor that listens to her tell weird stories when she's doped up on dilaudid. One morning when the doctor asked, "passed any gas yet?" she said, "No, but Emily has." I love you mom! Now when he asks he phrases it this way, "Diane, have YOU passed any gas yet?"

Since she's already been here seven days, it's hard to tell when she's going to turn the corner and actually start eating without being nauseated or throwing up. She needs to be eating a regular diet before she can get out of here. That's been one of the major things holding her back. We've tried every trick in the book for nausea. She now has a medicine cup with peppermint soaked gauze attached to her gown. It seems to make a big difference with her nausea but has me craving Fernwood mints.

I have stayed the night a few times and by far she did much better through the night last night. She got to bed at a descent hour, but woke up because there was a CODE in the room next door around five am. Our nurse was very busy in there so another gal came to draw her labs and give her some medication. My mom talked to her for an hour. I think it was nice for her to talk to someone new. The same faces around here are getting old I'm sure.

Fun with friends in town

We had a fun weekend early in August when our good friends came for a visit. They were still fresh off the boat from China. We really enjoyed their company and loved being with them for many firsts back in America.

Friends

photo courtesy of Brian Nicholson

Backpacking Adventures

We recently took a backpacking trip with my brother Chris and some friends. We climbed to the highest summit in Wasatch County, Utah. It was my first overnight backpacking trip and it was way fun. We climbed through a huge boulder field for about 2/3rds of the way up. The view at the top was amazing. I love the Uintah's! The trip was great, but the mosquitoes were so pesky. After we hiked the summit, we hiked down the back and camped near some beautiful lakes. I couldn't believe when I got home that I only had one mosquito bite. I got off easy.

Chris, Emily Cody, Audrey

The other Chris in my life


Our friend Cody B. chillin' at the top.

Memories

I've been kind of a lazy blogger lately. I apologize. I was searching through some old-ish pics looking for a specific picture, which I didn't find, but...I had fun looking at lots of these and thought I'd share. Enjoy!

Washington, D.C. Summer 2007
I totally turfed it getting onto the lion because it was wet from the rain. I had a nice bruise on my face later.

Spring Break 2006, San Diego, California

Ben's Wedding February 2005

At the race track summer 2006

Mountain biking Gooseberry Mesa near St. George. Summer 2006

Fishing with Dad 2004

Freaky! We must be related...2007 (My uncle and me)

College Graduation May 2007. Go Utes!

Chris freezing in August 2006 at Bowman Lake in Glacier National Park, MT

Glacier NP, August 2006



I've got a gun, you'd better watch out! Winter '03-'04

Our first car camping trip Labor Day 2005

May 2005 in San Rafel Swell area

Chris' usual look during his time as an undergrad

Glacier NP, August 2006

Georgetown, D.C. one of our favorite places for an evening stroll. Summer 2007

My sis-in Law Allie and me Spring Break 2006

View from my college apartment window on 12th east SLC, 2005

Camping May 2005, the weekend we decided we couldn't live without each other (most of the time)

Houlaganism

We've really been enjoying our summer so far, especially since Chris hasn't been working (that does have it's minuses too). Chris is starting a job next Monday. We've found lots of time for bike rides (I got a road bike for my birthday), and just plain hanging out around town. Chris has only had one little spill mountain biking this summer and scars to prove it. We broke out the old mopeds and have been having a blast riding them too. It's fun all the attention we get. We finally moved out of my mom's place at the beginning of June. It's nice to have our own apartment in the Avenues. Our latest adventure was an overnight backpacking trip and county summit hike in the Uintahs to Mt. Caldwell with my brother Chris and some other friends. We're eager to see our dear friends from China in a few weeks, and to see all the new babies friends have had and are having. Stay tuned!

Can't wait to play Ellie!!!

Pray for Matthew

My mom's youngest grandson, Matthew, is having major surgery this evening. Please keep him in your prayers. We love you Matthew and pray for the best.

Flying High

Chris' brother and sister-in-law were in town at the beginning of June. It was so fun to see them and their girls. We've really missed them. I was lucky and got to ride with Katelyn on the airplane.

We Miss you Dad

I thought I'd take a moment and pay tribute to my dad today. It's been two years today since he left us. I have so many great memories of him. Dad, we really miss you, but we're doing okay. Love you!

Pictures from our last trip in China

I have taken a long time getting these pics together to post. There are so many that I'm just going to post links to my facebook page and then you can view them there. If I have lots of time later, I may put them directly on here. In the meantime, enjoy them from facebook. These are pictures from when we traveled in March before coming back to the U.S.

(click on the city to see the pictures)

Hong Kong

Guilin, Yangshou, Dali

Lijiang

Apartment Hunting is the PITS!!!

Seriously people!!! Landlords are getting away with murder these days. I am in shock each time I see an apartment and learn how much they want for it. These places are freaking dumps!!! Just like gas prices, congress should investigate rent prices in SLC. I'm sure there will be more complaining to come after we see the next round of apartments this afternoon. Wish me luck!

Let the blogging...resume

I've been out of the blogging world for the last month and a half. Now that I've moved back to the states I haven't felt much of a need to blog about life's happenings. Life is busy but doesn't seem quite as exciting as it did in China. I also find it difficult to write on here these days because I am unsure of my audience. Who reads what I write anyway? I'll make a renewed effort to keep current here as long as my readers don't mind reading about what I consider the more mundane things in life...

To be continued....

A Farewell Lunch

A Korean sister in our branch invited us out to lunch one last time before we take off tomorrow. We went out to a really good Korean restaurant with a few friends in the branch. It's been fun to get to spend so much time with friends but hard to say good-bye. On a side note, it's interesting when we all get together because of the communication barriers. Here's a list of languages spoken by each person in order of fluency (I'm not professing any fluency on my part), from left to right: Hyun Young(1-Korean 2-Chinese 3-English) Lynda (1-English) Emily (1-English 2-Chinese) Jennifer (1-Chinese 2-English) Tiffany (1-English 2-French 3-Chinese). It's a hoot because we're always having conversations in at least two languages, and many times the right messages don't get through. It makes for lots of laughs, especially when Tiffany told Hyun Young that she "eats a lot," when she meant to say she "cooks a lot of food often." Good times. We all love it though and wouldn't have it any other way.

PEZ

We're in the process of packing and Chris was going through suitcase pockets. This is what he found:
The significance is that he had these for his entire mission starting in the MTC. He unknowingly carried them with him home, to Taiwan, stored them for a couple years, packed them to Washington, D.C and then to Tianjin, China. That's six years that these PEZ have been with him.

He finally tasted of their goodness.

Bag Tagged

I'm glad this is the first time I've been tagged because most of the time I'd rather not participate. This tag caught me at a good time. Thanks Allie, I'm serious. P.S. I love your bag!!!

1. Show your bag.

2. Show ALL the contents of your bag, NO cleaning it out first!
I'm in the process of packing up to move home from China and had just emptied my bag yesterday. Sorry guys, no dirt on Emily....

Jams

On the highway: So a few weeks ago we were on the outer ring road (the highway around the city). There are quite a few intersections with stop lights along this high-speed road. They're just now beginning to understand the idea of on and off ramps here. Anyway, the traffic light was out... what does this mean? It means that all the cars rush into the intersection as quickly as possible to be the first to get to their destination. The result: no one gets anywhere. Seriously people, let's think about this. Have you ever heard of taking turns or cuing up? (This picture doesn't do it justice).



Waiting turns is a big problem here and has caused me much frustration. Chris has taught me quite a bit of Mandarin and a very useful thing I have learned to say is: "What are you doing? Get in the line." I've had to use this often in many situations. For those of you who know me well, you know I'm not afraid to say what I'm thinking. Well, here in China I'm even more straightforward. I'm not afraid to tell anyone to get in line or stop smoking when they're sitting next to me on the non-smoking bus (this is a huge one...)

Here is a rundown of typical situations in which I must remind people that there is a line. If I didn't, I would never get anywhere or anything.

1-at the grocery store to check the price of my vegetables
2-in the check out line at the grocery store
3-at McDonald's ordering food, or anywhere for that matter
4-buying tickets at the train station
5-buying tickets in the subway
6-checking in for airplane flights
7-getting onto a train
8-waiting to use the bathroom anywhere
9-when filing through a tourist attraction
10-buying tickets to get in to every tourist attraction
11-waiting for a cab
12-getting a Visa
13-crossing the border into China
14-getting onto the airplane (seriously, the seats are reserved people!)

So I think this inability to wait patiently for a turn has its roots in Communism and the cultural revolution, plus just the sheer number of Chinese. If anyone ever wants to get anywhere they have to push to the front in the meanwhile pushing, shoving and stepping on others (Eg. Over the Chinese New Year a college-aged young man was trampled to death in a train station and another girl was pushed off a platform in front of an oncoming train. All because there were so many people that were in a hurry to get ahead. Seriously sad).

I don't know if I have mentioned this before or not, but I think a lot of foreigners that come for the Beijing Olympics are going to have a lot of frustrations and come away with a bad taste in their mouth about China. Don't get me wrong, I love it here and there are many great things about living here. But anywhere in China where there are crowds (the Olympics) serves as a breeding ground for frustration. I think it's because people (foreigners) have expectations of how people (everyone) should act, and people (Chinese) don't meet those expectations. Isn't that the reason anyone usually ever gets frustrated, unmet expectations...

Tibet

My mom called a couple days ago and let me know that there was a travel alert from the U.S. State Dept. against traveling to, in or around Tibet, China. Well, we're in the province right next to it. I don't know the whole story, but there have been protests by the Tibetans and the Chinese govt. has stepped in to stop them. I have been reading the NY Times about what's going on and they have reports that over 80 Tibetans had been killed. However, the Chinese Govt. reports that no Tibetans have died and the only things they are reporting are showing Tibetans in bad light.

We ran into a Belgian couple at dinner tonight and asked them how their travels had been. Their response: horrible. They were in Lhasa for a few days while the rioting was going on until they were forced out. They shared first-hand accounts of what they saw there. Their hotel was on a corner where there was a blocade by soldiers. They were not allowed to leave the hotel so they just watched the action all day. They said they saw many tanks head into the center of Lhasa with hundreds of soldiers. At night they weren't able to sleep because there was constant gun fire. They told us of a girl they met on the train out of Tibet. She was a foreigner and only had the clothes on her back. She tried to return to her hotel after a day trip, but because of the riots and the soldier blocades she was not allowed to return to her hotel. She pled with them to retrieve her things, but was denied. The just sent her on her way out of Tibet. That sucks!

I think the biggest reason they are sending foreigners out is not so much for their safety, but so they will not spread the word on what was happening.

The couple we met also saw many buildings burned and burned cars and busses overturned on the streets. They said that three sacred Tibetan monastaries had been burned, but didn't know who burned them. The Chinese are blaming the Tibetans and vice versa.

Because the Chinese Govt. is all about propaganda, we haven't see or heard anything except from foreigners that have been on the internet or received phone calls from abroad. The couple from Belgium said there was no internet in Tibet because of the riots and the Chinese govt. Anyway, it's really interesting being here while this is going on because no Chinese people know about it or really care, but it is a really big deal among the foreigners.

It will be really interesting to see what happens and what effect this will have on the Olympics in Beijing. Can we say China has some major human rights issues?!!

My thoughts:

FREE TIBET!

Dali

We're about to leave Dali and head to Lijiang and Tiger Leaping Gorge. We have been really impressed by the people here. They are mostly members of the Bai minority group. Most are farmers and many have keep their traditional culture and customs. We spent this morning at a town market and had a great time people watching. The landscape here is very familiar as it is similar to the wasatch front (home). There is a big lake here that looks just like Bear Lake. We're having a great time traveling, but getting ready to come back home to Tianjin and then to Utah in 2 1/2 weeks. Lots of changes coming up.

Hong Kong MTR

We've been in Hong Kong for the last few days. It has been a real fun experience. The shopping is great and that's not a good thing for us, but I like it. I'm in the MTR (subway) checking my email and things (it's the only free place :) We're really having a blast, but are on our way back to the Mainland tomorrow. Lots more train rides and long nights of no sleep!

Shenzhen

So right now I'm sitting in my swimsuit, after a walk on the beach, in the Executive VIP private lounge at the Sheraton beach resort in Shenzhen, China. FYI.

Shout out to Grandma Newey

I am trying to de-junk my computer and ran across some fun pics from photobooth with Grandma Newey. I don't think she'd appreciate me posting them here. Good fun!

Keeping a Personal History

So the title of this blog post may turn some people off from reading this. Honestly, it would to me if I were not the author. I had the "opportunity" (as some will put it) to teach RS today in our small branch. I had to come up with the topic (eek) and had no idea what to share. I have been blogging more and the thought came to me to teach about journaling. I read the 2007 General Conference talk by President Eyring. It was awesome! (If you haven't read it, then read it. If you have read it, then read it again. Click here to read it now!!) I used his talk to teach about the importance of keeping personal and family records. Moral of this story: no matter how boring you think your life is, that isn't what matters when keeping a journal. What matters is that you begin to recognize the hand of God in your life on a daily basis and make a record of it so you and your posterity can look to it for hope and inspiration in the future. THE END.

Impulsive or Sentimental?

A couple weeks back I decided to hop on e-bay and check out used cars. We'll be coming home soon and I was curious to see what kind of cars are on the market and how much they cost. I submitted a search on e-bay for a Subaru wagon, since I loved the one I used to own. I sold my 2005 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport Special Edition last May with much reluctance. I couldn't take it to China with me and there really was no need for it in Washington, D.C. (Public transportation rocks! Utah needs to get on that train). Anyway, the search on e-bay was under way and I came across a car that was the same year/make/model as my old one. I was excited to find it because there are not too many of them for sale on the used car market (because they are such rad cars). I was exploring the ad more and found that the car was located in Bountiful, Utah. The thought popped into my head that this could be my car, but I quickly talked myself out of it. That would be impossible. I continued looking through the ad and came to the pictures of the car. With each new picture that loaded on the screen my heart fluttered a little in anticipation to see if I recognized anything that could give it away as my car. Next Picture: Right Front Passenger Door.

I could not believe it. This was my car. How could I tell? Our neighbors that were ticked at us because we got a better parking spot from the apartment manager because we asked first when it was available, door dinged us. Maybe not on purpose, but I'd like to think so because they totally chewed me out once about it. I also checked a few other things to verify that it really was mine.

I had to have it back, for many reasons. It was the first car I ever owned and my dad helped me purchase it. The plan has been that when my first child (which I don't have yet) turns 16, they will drive it. That was the plan before I sold it, but now there's a renewed chance. I once had a really good guy friend tell me (before I was married or even thinking about it) that I would make a great mom in this car. The reality of this can now once again come true.

I bought it back. It was once again my car within 5 hours of first finding it on e-bay.

This car has taken me (Chris too, once he joined the family) on many adventures. From Polebridge, Montana (near the Canadian boarder) to Monument National Park in AZ and to the Pacific Ocean in California. And countless places in between. It has been a good car and has done a lot for me, from hauling me and my saddle to feed and ride my horses in Fruit Heights to hauling bikes and skis and camping gear of all sorts. I've used it to move 5 different times. It never let me down during my commute to the University of Utah or to work at Primary Children's. It also helped me attract my husband ;) I have so many good memories with it and am so excited that it is now, once again a part of my life. If my car could read, this is the short letter I would write to it:

Polebridge, Montana. August 2006

Monument Valley, AZ. March 2005

Bryce Canyon, UT. Labor Day 2005

Dear Soup-a-roo,

I'm sorry that I left you last year. I did all I could to keep you, but it just wasn't in the cards. I'm glad that you were taken care of so well. 3,000 miles isn't much in one year. I will never again let you go. I hope you forgive me and that we can remain partners in transportation and recreation forever.

Love always,

Emily