Sunday, July 27, 2014
week 54 oh ya
(Hong Kong bridges...at night they are all lit up)
NiHao,
Another week down and in the books.
Girls and I took our beloved neighborhood shuttle to Walmart (She Kou Wa Ma). Sophie said as long as we didn't go to the walmart across from H & M she would go--the smell of that one makes her feel sick. We got some drinks-sea salt lemonade-and headed, with our cart, up the escalator ramp. The girls went searching for school supplies (school starts today!), I gathered things from my list +++. Orange juice for smoothies, hangers, apples, bananas. I hurried to Decathlon to find a foam roller (my aching back and foot) while the girls sat with our groceries and ate ice cream cones at McDonald's. I think they have had more ice cream cones this week than all last year combined. It's so stinking hot and muggy, and the cones are so cheap, I can't say no. I was unsuccessful in the foam roller hunt for now. We had a family home evening lesson, enjoyed letters from the missionaries and ate Sophie's homemade pudding pie. It only got tipped upside down once while taking it from the fridge.
t-yao feng here, she's a great help. I spent most of the morning arranging the trip to pick up Ally and I'm still not finished-lots of details x 7 including estimating how much her suitcases *might* weigh at this point. The "bargain" airlines crack me up. Her three suitcases cost more than our whole family to fly. Girls went to the gym together. It rains off and on but we're wishing for a good storm. Todd is up early and working hard. This project has him running.
w-I was up around 4am, decided to go to the temple. I hitched a ride to the Shenzhen bay border crossing with Todd's driver on his way to work at 7am, bought a bus ticket, got through the border in 11 minutes and sat on the bus for about 20 before it was full enough to head to Kowloon Tong. I missed the 9:00AM session so I decided to go to the post office first. I took the subway to LokFu and found a whole new section of fun. A great department store with lots of bento things, kitchen utensils, art supplies etc, a new market, new grocery store and a post office in the mall. I mailed 5 packages internationally for $40. I love the Hong Kong post! Temple and then distribution center to pick up seminary supplies. We are only allowed one item/person, so I got one set only of supplies. I have 8 more to bring across the border. We will go Saturday so I can get six more sets and I'll have to go another time to get the remaining sometime before the end of August. I grabbed some lunch and shopped a bit at festival walk and bought another bus ticket at 2PM. I just missed the 1:50pm and had to wait until 2:50pm so it took until 4:45 before I got home, so tired. We ordered Indian food for dinner. Ashley and Hey Ho stopped by for a movie...they hadn't seen Nacho Libre, what!? We dished up a few American snacks and enjoyed the show. They are fun friends to have around.
th- I went to the gym and rode the bike while it poured rain outside and then worked on my talk for Sunday. When we came back to China we saw they ripped out the squash court and are using it for another classroom. Todd and Brigham had many fun matches on that court, they will miss it! (President Cox told us it's going to be a German classroom). I had a lunch date with Todd. We then stopped at the Jingshan leasing office to look at three more houses in the neighborhood. One is too far up the hill on a dark densely wooded road, the other two were in bad shape. They both would need a lot of care to make them feel like home, management said three months on their end before we could move in. One more option to look at Friday over by the Ho Family. We also haven't crossed off the sunny seaside 19th floor penthouse with a rooftop deck but not sure about the height thing. I think I would have nightmares about someone falling so we probably won't go with that one but we will see. Hoping to decide by Sunday night. We could also stay where we are. Brynn took a test four times, complete with tears...she kept getting logged out. Sophie dropped her laptop again, learned how to climb up the doorway like spiderman and all the kids have been walking on their hands multiple times today. Too hot to go outside for recess so....
Friday: Brynn and I scrubbed the walls in the stairways up to the third floor. It was too hot to do any more. We have a/c in each room but not in the stairway. The paint is so thin that to wipe dirt, the paint comes off too. Maybe not worth the time and effort, but at least I have my favorite cleaning supplies and got to listen to music. It just feels cleaner knowing we spent time on it, even if it doesn't look cleaner. Brigham and Sophie went down to eat noodles for lunch and wrecked on the scooter on the slick roads home. Sophie landed on Brigham but Brigham landed on the ground and has raspberries on his hip and knee and elbow. Even with the sores he and Todd went down to the basketball court to shoot baskets. We went to see the villa by the Ho Family. We rode the metro to the all city mall, picked up some things at muji and grabbed some random snacks at the grocery store...our favorite coconut milk, chewy rolls, water. We met over at the Hos and went to see the apartment. We love the location, and it was a nice apartment. It just was a bit too small for us with kids doing school at home all day, and a larger seminary class. We would have loved living by the Ho family. President Ho took us home in his fancy car. We appreciate their help and friendship. I filled out the immigration forms for our day trip to Hong Kong tomorrow. I almost have everyone's passport numbers memorized.
Saturday: Family trip to Hong Kong. David picked us up at 7am and we were at the temple at 8:30am. The girls and I headed out, in the rain, to find an new art supply store we hadn't been to yet, and Todd, Brooke and Brigham met us for lunch after the temple. While we were waiting by a light to cross the street a cute little man gave the little girls an umbrella and kept on walking down the street. So kind. Todd here: The temple president, President Wong, helped out with the baptisms. He is great and was a ward mission leader for Chinese members and investigators in Brisbane so we always talk to him about Chase. Very nice man and a great group of temple workers who are always so excited to see us (at least they appear excited). Todd, Brigham and Sophie went to a movie while we went to the Lok Fu shopping center for bento supplies and wash tape, fuji instant film, a laptop case and doritos. Across the street there was a park with some great backdrops for photos with nice lighting. Another wall had a breeze and we laughed for a while taking shots there. It really is beautiful here in this tropical climate, even though hot and sticky. We met back at the mall to meet the boys and Sophie, sore feet, headache and tired. Thomas drove us back across the border and we loved having Sanfords stay with us for the night! They spent Friday and Saturday in Macau and had some travel tips, restaurant recommendations, stories to tell, and shops to visit.
Sunday: Brooke and Alicia and I spoke today. (from Todd...they did great. Jane told a neat story about missing Chase the day before we came back to China. In a dream she had, we were driving to the airport and she saw Chase and his companion in their p-day clothes with name tags on doing laundry. Apparently I told her that she couldn't go say hi to him because it would be against the rules. But she went anyways and the little kids too. And Chase gave her and the kids a big hug that really left her feeling comforted. I, on the other hand, went to return the rental car :)....They both spoke on the priesthood. These ladies understand the self-less service of the priesthood better than us men. They also mentioned the separate responsibilities of men and women and the complimentary nature of our roles. They did great and didn't dance around the subject. Nice work ladies. )
I loved watching the branch presidency and President Cox smile as people would enter the church house. It is great to be reunited with friends who have been traveling, who are new, and who have stayed here this summer, holding the branch together I love in the fall when everyone gets back and the rooms are full of friends. We walked home, well all but Sophie, she rode her skateboard in her dress and helmet. At our front gate, her skateboard launched into my heel. Good thing I was wearing my clogs or it would have been my ankle, my favorite! No harm, no foul.
I'm guessing Chase's visa arrived. He sent us a quick note with his travel plans and when we get to talk to him this week from the airport. Ally sent a quick note letting us know she is in Lund with her friend Sister Morris and that all is well. Her new Pday is Tuesday. We had 8 friends for Sunday lunch-we love the company and meeting those who are here for just a short time. Branch members are our family here. We ended the day with some planning, leftovers, a little Mandarin study and raspberries & cream yogurt making for tomorrow. We have decided to stay in our neighborhood but move to a different house just down the hill from where we are. We probably won't move until October when the house is ready for us.
Have a great week! Keep in touch! Come visit!
Love from China,
The Taylors
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
End of week 53 Back in China
Hello Family & Friends!
Currently sitting in the SEATAC airport, emailing with Chase a bit on the whereabouts of his contact lenses. We were up dark and early...3:30AM to load our beds back into storage, clean bathrooms and empty trash, finish packing. STUFFING. Two duffle bags ripped...we tied a neon green nike shoelace around one bag and by then we were just happy they would take our bags. Todd ended up with 3 lbs of frozen bacon in his carry-on bag outer pocket. Oh boy. Security was surprised to see a kitchen aid mixer and a sewing machine go through the scanner and they did some extensive X-rays of the innards of both, but we made it through somehow, on time and fairly in tact. We arrived at the airport the same time as the Staker & Evans girls so that was fun to say howdy/goodbye all at once. PHX>LA>SEA>HKG.
It is still so strange to me to get into a flying tube at 5:50 AM on a Monday and exit at 7:35PM on Tuesday. I used my express pass through Hong Kong immigration and had all 14 checked bags onto 4 luggage carts a good 15 minutes before the rest of my family showed their faces at baggage claim. David, our stand-by cross-border driver and his buddy loaded all the bags and we were off on our 2nd year in China. Our helper, Yao Feng, had our house ready for our arrival, beds made, stacks of fresh towels, and staple foods in the fridge...eggs, orange juice, fresh fruit and vegetables. Very thoughtful and welcoming. We were struck with familiar yet fogotten smells...does our house really smell like mothballs? Oh, yes, it does, and a flood of memories, all good, some bitter sweet, came rushing back. I still haven't peeked into Chase's room, can't go there yet, I get a deep pit in my stomach and my throat goes dry and my heart hurts and I feel like I can't breathe thinking about it. I'm so glad I have many, many distractions right now or I'd never make it through sending out these two loves of mine. I think moving to China in timing and deed, was a tender mercy just for me to help ease my missing Ally so much. We got the job offer on the weekend of her farewell so from day one we've been able to focus on other things while she is serving away.
We located the perishables-blocks of cheese, shredded cheese, butter, bacon, tortillas and a few other things before heading to bed. I walked into the family room where three bodies were flopped every which way on couches and chairs, and one already in her bed..their bodies not knowing whether it was morning or night. We quickly said prayers and released them to bed. After 61 nights in beds that weren't mine, it was so nice to be back in my own bed with my own pillow.
Wednesday: Black-out drapes. Priceless. Still awake by 5 something AM but looking forward to all this year has to teach us. It feels like a New Year's Day and I don't want to lose any time or have regrets that I didn't do this or that with our limited time clicking by here. We check the flight deals every Tuesday. Today there was a Tokyo ticket for $200 r/t. I was so close to booking that baby. Kicker was that it leaves at 1AM tonight…If we hadn't just spent 61 of the past 62 days away, maybe it would have worked.
Brooke texted Todd:
Tokyo :)
Todd: no! :)
Next time, maybe.
I had a few people ask what we missed and were taking back to China. As I unpacked today, here is some of what we lugged : goldfish crackers, cereal, herbal tea, slim jims, butter, cheese, tortillas, hotdogs, bacon, beef jerky, vitamins, protein powder, dish and laundry soap, candles, essential oils, toothpaste, shampoo, makeup, lotion, muffin mix, brownie and cake mixes, chicken base, hot cocoa, jam, pancake mix, waffle iron, immersion blender, blend tec and kitchen aid, bandaids, medicines, air freshener, thread, paints, brushes, watercolor paper, index cards and stationary, books, cashews and almonds, vanilla, wheat thins, triscuits, Chia seeds and quinoa, dry shampoo, mascara, paper cups, plates, napkins, almond milk, coconut syrup, berry syrup and maple syrup. Chocolate and caramel sauces, chocolate chips, bbq sauce, cookie butter and parmesan cheese. Fun sized candy for Halloween, laundry soap, softener and unstoppables and a jump rope.
The kids went to watch a movie over at the Ho's house-missed them! I fell asleep way before they came home. Not because they were late, but because this jet lag has a way of pulling me like a magnetic force into a deep sleep at odd hours. The first day seems to be okay, but days 3, 4, 5 are tough. Todd gets up early, 4-5am ish, and runs in the hot, humid mornings and is off in a taxi by 7am. I made dragon fruit bowls (dragon fruit, banana, orange blended and topped with chia and toasted coconut cashews and passion fruit) and homemade coconut greek yogurt. I have missed the tropical fresh fruits. We likey lychee. Brigham has eaten at muslim noodle everyday for lunch. Once with the girls (along with a city tour and stop at the import stores), once with Todd and Sophie and once by himself. He's working his way to their "best customer" spot.
We looked at an apartment in Fraser Place and another house here in Jingshan but neither felt like "home". We have some appointments Saturday so we will see what's out there and available.
The girls and I headed to the All City mall...they were so excited to be back on the subway, using the handles like monkey bars and swinging around the poles, scanning their subway cards like pros. We walked through Uniqlo and Gap, got ice cream cones at McDonald's while todd went to China Mobile, drinks from the pharmacy and headed home, a couple of skirts richer.
Raining today. We had 2 minute pickup in three rooms. With the 5 of us, it was pretty productive though we still have a lot of things to put away from our haul over the deep blue sea. Sophie worked on her keyboarding and girls painted cardboard diamonds for a project. Laundry. I rebounded the basketball as Brigham shot, almost going down in a puddle, phew! Rode a bike for a bit at the gym, yoga at home. We walked down to Sea World for dinner and a bit of shopping and brought dessert home. I worked on our itinerary for when we go pick up Ally and the family was laughing through a movie in the other room.
Sat. Todd had to work today until 1pm. Gym. We went to our nail place but it was "being redecorated" which means demolished, walls crumbling, cords hanging from ceiling etc. They have a second location so we went there. While waiting, we met a nice family who happens to be from Australia, happens to live right down the street from us, and happens to have two boys Brigham's age and a daughter Brynn's age. We will have them over soon. I made one of those language mistakes today with them. I asked what their dog's name was and the little girl said Klippa. I kept calling the dog "Klippa" throughout our conversation. Brooke was dying laughing at me. She said, "Mom, the dog's name was Clipper", so evidently I kept throwing in an Aussie accent. Brooke left to meet up with Hey and Ashley Ho and Brigham at the new SimplyLife restaurant that opened up here in Sea World. They were off on a photo shoot and Brigham back to play soccer. Todd picked up the girls and me off the street while passing to go look at a few apartments. First house...too gaudy and small. Second house 27th floor but nice, no oven or dishwasher or clothes dryer. third house had a great roof top deck for entertaining atop the 19 floor and is close to the subway and the last villa was really old and had lots of steps. We will have to decide by Wednesday if we want to move or stay where we are. I fell asleep at approximately 5:30Pm so I have no idea what happened after the rest of the day.
Sunday: So nice to be back at church, there's a great feeling in the house where we meet for church. There were a lot of visitors (approx. 8)-guys alone here on business, and about 40 people total. Milani, Colby and Pres. Ho gave talks on gratitude and being grateful in difficult times as well as good times (they were all SUPER). It started raining midway through, my favorite thing, it makes a beautiful backdrop. We just have two meetings on summer Sundays and the second is a combined youth/adult meeting. The children meet together downstairs. After church we hosted a lunch for 6 extras. It was fun to have people over and get to know them better. We had a Canadian (Holly), three Columbians (Reyes) , and two from US (Bro. Warr and Kimberly). All with a story to tell. Looking forward to seeing our other friends return back to China as the school year start approaches. Naps, weekly planning, a trip to the park and popcorn finished off the day. School starts tomorrow for the little girls, can you feel the excitement?
Hope you are having a fabulous summer break, wherever you may be. Keep in touch, come visit!
All is well.
Photos: Brigham at his beloved Muslim Noodle, Brooke & Sophie in downtown Shekou, Chase and buddies at MTC (sent from Cannon Cowley)
Love from AZ, Seattle & China,
Taylor Family
“You are good. But it is not enough just to be good. You must be good for something. You must contribute good to the world. The world must be a better place for your presence. And the good that is in you must be spread to others….” ― Gordon B. Hinckley
Ally & Chase-"You will come to know that what appears today to be a sacrifice will prove instead to be the greatest investment that you will ever make."
3 Attachments
end of week 52-one year since our move to China
It's hard to believe it's our final night in America! We are exhausted. Ready for our own beds and thankful for the time we were able to spend here with family and friends. It is with a bit of sadness to leave the country without Chase, China won't be the same for us without him, but it can still be a good experience for all. He is thriving at the MTC. Ally is happy and hardworking in Sweden. Life is good.
We had FHE with my sister and parents before my sister left for a summer vacation. Met with the fun Jones family. Birthday lunch for a friend, girls night with another, (you have to try Flower Child, a healthy, hip restaurant if you are in Scottsdale).We lost track of time while sharing beauty products in the aisles at Target and had to buzz to the Williams Field airport to pick up a visiting son. A few showings of the house--one guy walked right in without knocking. We happened to be in the kitchen. Trips to sonic. Ahhhhh ICE! Dinner with the Frames while we used their laundry room. Lots of weighing, packing, organizing our suitcases. Did you know a kitchen aid mixer fits into a carry-on? Yard work and Brigham stained the gates. A delivery from UT for us from Alison my neighbor. Never enough trips to target and costco. Ordering and hoping school text books would arrive on time. Brooke babysat the cute neighbor kids and worked on school, lunched with a friend. A birthday celebration for my sister. A visit to our new nephew complete with cousins and cupcakes Kelly and donuts and Liz, oh, and a dinner delivery by Sis. Garner who lives in Singapore. A date night with the Hornes, lunch date with Costellos. Amazon prime for last minute items. Apple store purchase for our returning student/missionary. Brig had fun with Preston and Truman and Tate among others-go carts and swimming, movies and basketball. Todd flew to North Carolina for his grandparents' 75th anniversary celebration. SEVENTY- FIVE (Congrats Chris and Carl!!) from todd: I went to North Carolina on Thursday for Chrismom and Poppy's 75th wedding anniversary. They still look great and feel great. 96 and 95 yrs old. Pretty great. We went to lunch, had dinner at their house and then rented a church house in Mt. Airy for a catered party on Saturday. All of my Dad's brothers were there and their families along with lots of other family and friends. Really great.
The girls were in heaven playing with the neighbors once again-crafting, swimming, tumbling, painting nails, reading books.
I think we had enough of a break to get our second wind before we head back. Just what we needed. Looking forward to the challenge and adventure of living away. To be honest, the experience lends much better writing material than I seem to have here. Madly packing/cleaning right now! Feeling butterflies and a bit of travel sickness already. Hated saying goodbye today. It made me realize that a year really is a pretty long time when I think of doing that again.
This we know... we are RICH with family and friends and testimonies.
Love you all. Hope the rest of your summer is splendid.
Come visit!
Love from the USA, one last time,
Todd Taylor family.
“Our spirits long for us to remember the truth about who we are because the way we see ourselves affects everything we do. It affects how we treat others, how seriously we work to develop ourselves and progress, how we handle both success and defeat, how we feel about the Lord Jesus Christ and His message, and whether or not we are more interested in this life or life forever.”- Sheri Dew
Week 51
Brooke's video of the week, it's a quick 13 second clip. Click here. It was strange being here in California without my parents, Brigham and Lizzie's families today, after spending last week with them. Almost like a completely different trip was starting, even though we (thankfully) were staying in the same place. Didn't want to move our luggage again. Fun day at the Carlsbad beach with Costellos and Allens and gang. Skim boarding, volleyball and body surfing. It was on the cool side. Costellos, one of our favorite couples, celebrated 25 years today. Todd still isn't feeling well-can't eat much besides oatmeal and water , and is still probably feeling a bit jet lagged. . He was able to get a blessing from some brand new elders today so I'm sure he will get better qu
ickly. I took the kids to How to Train Your Dragon 2 while he rested. It's nice just to walk down the street one block to the movies. Now if only there were some better movies playing this week.
Beach - kids are peeling like crazy on their faces It looks like they are wearing masks. Cold and windy most of the day. Todd is feeling better. We ate at the fish shop right near the beach, went home to clean up and then came back for games (Quelf and Catch Phrase) and a devotional. The Allens brought a nice group of friends with them this year. Karen made s'mores for everyone and we slept well.
July 3rd, Today is our 22nd anniversary. We had a breakfast date before the kids awoke. I remembered that my Grandpa Binger treated my family to breakfast at JB's in SLC the morning we got married. Todd remembered that he threw up just before driving to SLC. He asked if I knew our life was going to be like it has been, would I have been more excited or less excited for our lives on our wedding day? Interesting question...thinking back on events of 22 years and deciding if the positives have outweighed the negatives, and if the negatives turned out to be positives, I guess I'm glad I didn't know what was coming our way. I like the element of surprise in my life. ( And of course, I said "more excited"!).
We shopped at the outlet mall and had some good luck.
We met with the Curtis family for lunch and then the beach. Their son is in the MTC with Chase and they are both having a great experience there. Angie's sister is in my sister Liz's ward in AZ, so it was nice to meet her. After Curtis' left we went to Costello's beach for the rest of the afternoon. I love this vacation because there are no set plans, except for the beach, and especially that I don't have any babies in diapers-those were the days when vacations were tons of work. We went to a nice dinner on the beach in Cardiff and then a trip to good 'ole Costco. The night before the 4th is a crazy time to be there, but we needed some gas in our car .
Todd and I ran down the boardwalk. You could feel the excitement of the holiday as people set up their pop up tents and shades, bbq grills and red, white, & blue streamers. Music was playing, people were unloading truck beds full of coolers and drinks, laying out towels and applying sunscreen. Vendors were setting up booths. It was getting crowded even around 9am. We did three loads of laundry...reds/whites/blues. Todd had a work call while we drove to San Clemente to spend the holiday with my Beeson cousins at the Galland's home . My cousin, Anne Ivie, was there with her children from AZ, and Angela had her 4 Beeson cousins with her also. The kids had a great time swimming, going to the park, watching movies, lighting sparklers, throwing poppers and riding in Adam's big van. "Mom, you can play soccer in his van!", Brynn said, amazed. Emily and Anne manned the grill, 4 sister missionaries prepped fruit and veggie trays and it was a party. The teenagers went to the pier to watch fireworks on the beach and had a grand time getting to know each other, and Adam rode a motor bike up all sorts of ramps formed into an obstacle course in his backyard. Thanks Gallands!
We drove home today. Brigham is trying to finish The Hobbit , but he keeps falling asleep. We are staying in our house for a week. Nice to be home but interesting that it doesn't feel like it's time to be back yet, which I guess is a good feeling since we are not staying. This next year will go by more quickly as we look forward to Ally coming home and we know what to expect this time when we fly back to Asia.
Arizona sunsets are the best! (pic by brooke)
Sunday: Fasting. Nice to be back in our home ward for this week and next. It hit me today during the sacrament song, that we are going back for another year. I remember how we felt last time, the excitement of the unknown, and how we feel this time, knowing what it will be like. We do miss our other branch and friends as well, so it will be good to go back and finish our time there. We will miss those who won't be going back with us...Chase, Carina, Shane, and look forward to meeting new families in our little revolving China branch. Anna, good luck with your new son BingBing!
Mom and Dad has us over for a nice 4th of July dinner complete with red, white & blue dishes and table setting, thanks Mom!
Safe travels everyone!
Love from California & Arizona,
Taylor fam
PICS:
Arizona sunset
Beeson cousins on the 4th of July
Our family's 22nd birthday picture.
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