62

Hello!

Hiked and it was HOT. Too hot.  Lunched with my friend Sherley.  She's one of a kind, the good kind.   On the way home, I got caught in a wicked storm, I later found out it was typhoon Kalmaegi. I did have an umbrella ( with a broken handle), and pair of flip flops so I wouldn't ruin my other shoes.  Skyped with Mom and Dad this morning.  

Favorite conversation: 

Mom: Who stayed with you this weekend?

 Me: a guy who was Jimmer's trainer. 

Mom: Who's Jimmer? 

Me: What? Who's Jimmer? 

Mom: I don't know who he is, I don't watch football. 

My Dad: laughing.  

Brigham: I'm dis-owning you Grama!  

Girls tried to do their trampoline show but we had trouble with the music and then the rain, rain, rain.  They had leotards and their hair fixed and even makeup.  When they came in after trying they had mascara running down their cheeks.  Brigham headed out to a basketball practice in the rain.  I signed the family up (Ally too!) for a midnight run in November. Trying to figure out our visa/Christmas schedule.  

Chinese homework which is too hard. I understand the "old dog, new tricks" thing so much better now. My kids are doing great!  

Letter from Chase and only one more Monday PDay for Ally next week. We are busting with excitement, but I know she will have mixed emotions, so I'm trying to be sensitive to that too.   

It was very windy and stormed all night.  President Ho called me just before 6AM to alert me that the schools were cancelled and to cancel seminary as well.  We tried to notify everyone...Jacksons didn't get the message and walked to our house( without an umbrella!).  Todd sent them home to go back to bed.  Our school, unfortunately for the kids, was not cancelled.  Neither was the mandarin tutor.  

Orthodontist visit for Brigham tonight. He starts that fun process in October.  Todd got home late from meetings. The girls all went for hair appointments. The hair stylist didn't have much experience with curly hair, so Brooke had straight hair for a day. After the facials, hair washing, massage, cut and blow dry we went to watch Brigham for a minute. He was playing basketball with Shannon at the gym above the grocery store.  We went to get some bread at the store below and could hear the balls bouncing above us.  Todd stayed late for team activities...tug of war to be exact, and planking contests.  Random.  

Back to seminary this morning, still raining.   Yao Feng made a spicy lunch.  The Ho's picked Rhoda and me up in their party van and we went to a birthday lunch for Elsa and Rhoda, two fabulous friends.  We had about 8-9 ladies there from church.  The company was way better than the food.  Joyce took us home, Brigham entertained the Ho boys, who loved the trampoline.  Todd worked late again. The kids worked on family history for their Wednesday night activity. Sydney has her family line back to Adam.  The class was pretty impressed with that.  Yoga to end the day.  Brynn said it was "boring and too easy".  Relaxing is a better word.  

iOS8 updates took all morning.  I accidentally rapid fired a selfie to a friend I just met.  OOOPS.  The camera was automatically set in selfie mode and you slide your finger and the picture sends away.  So she saw a new side of me,(hello, nice to meet you, here's a real life headshot for you, to make your day better,)  we all (my family and seminary class) had a good laugh.  DELETE THAT PICTURE Ashley! :) I told her that early morning seminary made me look that haggard.  Management came and chopped off a piece of a tree that was hitting our house.  We had a fun afternoon watching the little man in the blue suit tied to the tree by a small rope, cut off the branch. He had two guys yelling instructions to him from below. He waited there while they drove off on their scooter to get something for him, he made a hook by tearing pieces of the end of the bamboo off, to grab the rope and flip around the branch.  Pretty handy with what he had to work with. 

We met Todd at the apple store, bought the girls some new coats, socks, boots, ate at subway.  Saw 4 baby geckos IN our house this week. Hoping they eat some bugs for us. 

Friday: Ordered some things at the print shop--Ally themed.  Ordered groceries for Sunday dinner, planned my seminary lesson for Monday, now time for 3rd grade.  Becky the tutor came. Mandarin hurts my brain.  My Mom and Polly Tribe (Chase's trainer from his mission's mother) sent me information on the foiled terror plot in Brisbane.  Stressful.  Brigham played soccer at the field (his usual afternoon activity) and the girls went to get our nails fixed up for our vacation. We all met at Pizza Hut for dinner and then Ashley Ho came over and we got to chat with Pres. Ho for a bit. Bought tickets home for Christmas-best present ever.   

Saturday: Brigham and his buddy Ernesto ran a little sports camp this morning for 5 little ones.  Went to the gym with Todd who slept through his scheduled run. Laundry and packing, and kids helped with a few chores I had on a list.  Brooke had a date with Shannon to go bowling and get ice cream. Her date almost got hit by a bus, glad he's ok. Wasn't too close, don't worry Joyce. Jeff and Pon planned a fun date night for Todd and me too...we walked down to the bus, rode it down to Old Shekou for dinner at Hunan Restaurant.  They knew right what to order which makes trying a new place way better! We taxied home and then made two cakes...pumpkin with cream cheese frosting and chocolate with toasted marshmallows and chocolate sauce, for tomorrow's dinner.  

brynn: At night it was cool because I got 100rmb for babysitting and taping my dad's siji (driver) receipts. But Sophie somehow sneaked a way to get me to buy her a treat at the airport, as partial payment for babysitting.  I also fell asleep really quickly!!  

Todd invited two co-workers for dinner, Joseph Smith  from London, and Mickael Jansson from Sweden.   (Yep...had Joseph Smith for dinner :) )  We also had a new couple from Sweden/China, Vincent and Yan, and Sanfords along with Kimberly and Holly, who help me prepare dinner each week. We don't usually know who's coming or how many for Sunday dinner but it's fun to fill the house, we enjoy the company and getting to know new people. Brynn gave a talk on honesty in church today and Sophie had the scripture/prayer. Elsa and Rhoda and Kimberly do a nice job with the kids.  Sarah used the last of her voice to teach Brooke's class and Todd taught the boys class today. Cherie gave a great lesson as well, she's great fun have as a teacher. Sydney and Stahles gave great talks on honesty. 

Happy Birthday to Lincoln and Chris-mom, Elsa, Charlotte, Ivy, Rhoda, Jill, Sue, and YOU, if you had/have a birthday this week.  

Ally was asked to speak in church on Dec. 14th at the church just north of Stapley Jr. High if you are around Mesa AZ at that time. 11:00 AM 2549 N. 32nd St. 

Miss you all, come visit! 

Love from China, 

The Taylors

61

Ni Hao, 

Brooke made a short singapore video from last week:  

The girls loved the wide open space of the airport...lots of tumbling going on while Todd and Brigham sat in the free massage chairs.  Back to our home, feels good.  Smells bad.  Like a chemical moth ball smell. Bu hao.  Flight was good, landed at 8:05PM and they let us on the 8:30PM ferry.  Made for a quick ride home.  We all SMASHED into one taxi with our suitcases and the taxi driver didn't say a word so we gave him a(n) (uncommon in China)  tip.  Letter from Ally before we got on the airplane, nothing from Chase. 

Went to the bank to pay rent, it's always a hassle. I can't even explain it properly, but I wasn't too happy with "topper sunflower" worker girl today.  They get points for online transactions so she wanted me to pay rent on her ipad, only that needed a password that was being sent to Todd with a time limit while he was in meetings.  I kept saying "I just want to pay at the counter like I have for the past 13 months."  By the time she finally let me go to the counter, Todd had a bunch of texts saying that our rent was paid like 6 times.  So hard to figure that stuff out when you don't speak Mandarin! 

Online school is still not working properly.  Waiting for a grocery delivery and hopefully we will get our trampoline tonight.  Chase emailed, he had transfers and he has a new companion from the Philippines, who has three months left.  Same area, Eight Mile Plains and his other two roommates are the same.  His buddy, Elder Tribe went to be the Chinese Training Leader.  

"Gutter oil" continues to be a problem here. Front page of the paper.  Some company from Taiwan sold gobs of it(243 TONS) to 430 companies and there's really no way to track it to snack shops and night markets.  Maxim pineapple cakes were recalled, 85C, a noodle company and some moon cakes and "Other unnamed retailers".  Gutter oil is recycled  from waste oils collected from cookers, fryers and grease traps, recycled grease from leather processing plants for oils used in animal feeds.  YUM! Let's eat in. 

Happy Birthday Todd Parks! 

First day of seminary today. Good to be back.  This year we have nine students, all great teens who are fun to be around, respectful and smart. Pres. Ho came and green smoothies by Bro. Taylor also made an appearance. 

I was helping Brynn with school and told Sophie to get going.  I turned around a few minutes later and she was typing the web address with her toes.  She had three letters punched in, that girl.  We had Becky, our Mandarin tutor come today.  She teaches Brigham, Brynn and Sophie for an hour and then works with Brooke and me.  Brooke does well, but it's over my head.  Brigham is also taking Mandarin through the high school.  

Todd pulled his achilles a bit so his running is on hold. He hops the fence at the neighborhood pool for now.      

We couldn't find a way to get a trampoline to our house so Brigham and the girls carried the frame all the way across the neighborhood and up our steep hill in the heat and humidity,  in four trips.  The were dripping with sweat.   The little girls are selling tickets to their trampoline show. The original poster said "Come to Sophie's amazing Tramp Show" but we fixed that and made it more proper.  For 15 RMB (just under $3) you can get a "free" ticket.  It includes an art piece, the show and a snack.  

Friday: having the hardest time staying awake and it's just 9 am. I'm the only one on the shuttle bus to Walmart this morning so I just told the driver to take me back. Didn't want to make him wait for only me. I came home and made a large grocery order and they will deliver to my door. That works great for me today.Tried to stay awake for Mandarin class.  It hurts my aging brain.   As a family we went to Simply Life for dinner.  Brynn ordered the hamburger. When Sophie took a bite she bit down on something hard and showed us, something that looked like a cow tongue. It was an inch long by 3/4 inch thick,grayish color and gross.  I took the burger to the worker who quickly took it to the chef. They were going to make another but we said "no thanks". I still don't get how my kids can order a burger in China.  I just shake my head.  Todd thinks it was a pig knuckle. 

Saturday: Todd, Brooke and Brigham had an activity with church to go rafting.

Brigham: We ended up not going cause there was a big group coming and they were a bit late, So instead we went to a secret waterfall/pool. It was pretty cool. After that we went and had some really good food made by a Philipino guy. It was awesome. 

Brooke: Today started at 7:30 with a crammed Chinese van ride to a river rafting place 2 hours away. Things didn't work out with rafting, so we drove a little further to a place that looked like it had nothing but rocks. The Sanfords had explored this little area before, and knew that there was a hidden waterfall within the rocks, that can't be seen from the road. I loved how secluded it was because we were the only ones there; no long lines or crowded pools with that touristy feel to it… haha it was great. After we swam around for a little while and risked our lives climbing back out, we had some way good lunch while it poured outside. Right as we were finishing up our meal, it quit raining! so that was good timing! We made it home a few hours later and played a little volleyball before district conference. Super fun day!

Meanwhile, the girls and I hunted down some cookies at Subway.  I said I wanted 24 and the guy said "no". He said that will take all of our cookies.  The girl worker said they had enough and finally gave them to me.  They were for the Single Adult dinner after district conference today.  The last time we bought a bunch of cookies and sat down outside. A couple went in and then came out and said, "who goes in to subway and says 'give me all your cookies?'" Oops.

Brynn: I liked shopping with Mom and Soph.  I'm SUPER excited to go get Ally!! It was cool when we got back because Shannon and Chico (Ernesto) were there. We played X-box and made waffles. Next, we went to the church to get baby-sat while the parents and youth were at the adult meeting. Sophie and I could've stayed home by ourselves but we wanted to play with the babies. They were so cute! We watched Rio and a bit of Planes. I liked having Holly and Brother Jacobs stay the night.

Great meeting at the District Conference tonight. Todd spoke on Hastening the Work through Family History  and President Cox gave a great talk. I was telling him earlier that day that I was inviting a lot but keep getting rejected and that I need to work on my skills.  He replied, "listen to my talk tonight".  In the talk he said to keep trying, that we will be blessed for trying and that our sins would be forgiven as we share what we know to be true.   The closing song was "Called to Serve" and I couldn't sing it... I was missing Ally and Chase so much. It was great to see our friends from Dongguan and Guangzhou.  Terry Jacobs and Holly Dagg stayed with us overnight to be here for meetings tomorrow.  Milani sent a little note too: Hello Milani! Hope you and Carina are loving school.  

Sunday: Today's church meetings were at a hotel conference room today. The group of young girls that are here to teach English came today also. (ATTN BRIAN & TARA BUTLER,  one of the girls was from your ward…TAYLOR DAVIS (GADBURY?)).    Afterwards we had out-of-towners from Hong Kong, Warrs, Matt, Kimberly, Holly, Spencer, Ernesto and Youses for lunch...our house was a busy hubbub for a few hours, which we love.  Chicken tacos, veggie tacos, watermelon, chips/salsa, toppings, lemon yogurt cake and brownies.  The guests left and a  storm rolled in, thunder and lightening and all. 

We live in a great place surrounded by wonderful people.  We have lots of work to do, I'm learning that I missed out on a lot of opportunities to serve back at home.  Chalking that up to "life lessons learned in China".  My list is long.

Hope you all have a great week.  We leave to get Ally ONE week from tomorrow.  I can't believe it is happening! We won't see her until Thursday the 25th.  Makes me miss Chase all at the same time.  

Have a great week, we think of you often and miss home too much if we think about it too long.  Come visit! 

Love from China, 

Taylor Family

ASHLEY HO, thanks for the pictures from the waterfall! 

week 60 // singapore

(jane on parajump)

I love reading the Shenzhen Daily, our local newspaper that comes in English.  Today's edition told of the brands of bottled water that are unsafe because of bacteria and metal content.  Helpful.  There was also a rush on c-sections hoping to give birth before the first day of the academic year. In China children are only admitted to first grade if they turn 6 before Sept. 1. "the rule, combined with limited educational resources and increasingly fierce competition for places at schools, has spawned a mad dash of mothers getting c-sections in late August each year since it was implemented." Then there are the bizarre stories…A veteran airborne high risk thief who was stealing from other passenger's luggage mid-flight (keep an eye on your carry-ons in the overhead) and "Is noise driving expats away?" (we don't realize how bad it is until we visit somewhere else and it feels eerily quiet.) 

(our faces when we read that...^)

In other news, the Mesa School Online program updates the system over night once in a while so the kids had a bonus day off since it's daytime for us. (Fri- I just got an email today that said the site was down until further notice, yikes!)

Tuesday: I tried to get to the ferry building to buy tickets to the airport all day.  It got to be after 7 PM so I just walked down there in the dark.  I found an older couple walking that way so I got real close and pretended I was with them.  Todd's driver picked me up on the way home from work.  Kids are buzzing with excitement, packing and getting ready to go to Singapore tomorrow morning. ( When we got back, in the paper it said there was a handicapped man who would hire motor cab drivers and kill them with an ax...three of them, one was right at the ferry building, less than a mile from where we live, and at the exact place where I walked alone in the dark, one day later.) 

Wednesday: Almost missed the ferry for the second time in a week.  It's hard to get a taxi lately.  Todd took Brooke, Brynn and Sophie, Brig and I finally got a taxi, ferried to the airport, checked in and sat down to Popeye's chicken...tradition.  We liked the changes on the plane...cup holder so you don't have to have your whole tray down, outlet behind tray so you don't leave it behind, wired head rests that fold out.  Didn't like the way the chair slides when you recline.  It slides up and your knees knock the chair in front now.  We got to watch Million Dollar Arm, a show we tried to find in the states but missed somehow.  It was raining when we landed in Singapore. The airport signs and flight information monitors were all sorts of colors...blue, yellow, red, purple.  We passed through immigration, bought SIM cards, got cash, and found a taxi to take all 5 of us.  He was a great taxi driver...spoke three languages and gave us a list of things to do while we are here.  We dropped our things at the hotel and headed out to a glorious food court (the variety!) and night market.  The market was at Bugis Street.  Busy, busy and lights flashing everywhere. Loud. Crowded.  Stopped at McDonald's for hot chocolate only they don't sell it...they sell Milo, iced or hot.  Kids weren't fans.  Called Todd, swam in the pool, wrote letters to Ally and Chase, watched Man of Steel and went to bed, tired and happy.  (Hotel Beds in Asia are mini!) 

Thursday: Up and off to universal studios.  Had a great day. Brooke was picked to come up and dance with a group and then they said surprise, you will now have a dance off against each other.  Two of them went and then Brooke and she pulled out a standing back tuck. The crowd was cheering and the Rockafellas were surprised.  Sophie didn't like the roller coasters at first but then was really liking them at the end.  The shows were good, food just ok but it made for a fun day.  My friend Erika...Todd and I met her almost 20 years ago at BYU, then again in AZ, now lives here and gave us a great list of things to do.  (Thanks Erika!) We went to Mustafas, a variety, department store for the most random mix of items...watches, a whole, huge section of rolling suitcases, fabric, kitchen items, groceries, hair things, movies, cds, water bottles, dishes, nike athletic clothes, paper goods, stacks of jeans, and these were just the things near the escalator.  It went on and on.  We found Brooke a new lens for her camera and then went home.  The kids needed a snack so we walked down to the food court. Since it was after 10Pm, the baked goods counters were all discounting.  We ordered 3 jumbo cinnamon rolls-blueberry topped, pb&J topped and regular, and 6 cream puffs.  Just what you need just before 11PM! We also had some "minced meat mushroom noodles with black sauce" from the street.  

Friday: Happy Birthday Ally! My friend is a bishop's wife in Sweden and has Ally's cell number so we were able to get her a message on her birthday. She also sent one back to us! Best thing ever.  I sat by the pool while sophie swam. Got some sandwiches and delicious Taiwanese beef noodles (love the toppings...pickled cabbage, chili peppers, cilantro, green onions and a dipping sauce atop noodles, chunks of tender beef and topped with beef broth). We looked around at some of the shops...Cath Kidston and Typo and then caught a taxi to the Singapore Botanical Gardens.  Beautiful.  We also toured the Orchid Garden, smashed some pennies for souvenirs, walked behind waterfalls, climbed rocks, had drinks under a gazebo overlooking turtles in a lake and took lots of photos.  Next we went to Orchard Street where there is mall after mall after mall.  We found a whole level of sporting goods stores, so Brigham was happy. We had some treats and Marks and Spencer and then taxied back to the hotel. Perfect timing.  A couple taxis after ours, Todd popped out.  Welcome to Singapore.  The Sears, our neighbors, have talked about the chili crab since we moved in last year.  Finally, We had dinner reservations at 9PM at Jumbo Seafood for the much talked about chili crab.  After one of our cabs dropping us in the wrong spot (an ally full of bars), and across a busy street, we found the other half of our family.  They outfitted us with bibs and plastic gloves, crab crackers and lemon water.  The crab was delivered in a sauce in a cast iron pan with steamed buns for dipping.  Delicious...and a sauce flavor I can neither describe or remember, it was something I've never tasted before.  I just know it was good.  The kids had fun trying something new.  Sophie just had a taste, Brigham doesn't like seafood but keeps trying to like it.  Brooke played around with the claw and kept repeating with plastic gloved jazz hands "it's crab night, it's crab night", Brynn dug right in.  We walked down the riverwalk and watched a giant bungee ball shoot up in the air a few times and then called it a night.  

Saturday: Kids all still asleep.  Today we are going to Sentosa Island to do the zipline and rope climbing course.  Taxied then took the monorail to Beach Station, walked about 15 min. (through the strongest man contest)  to the entrance to the megazip, ropes climbing course, rock climbing wall, bungee trampoline and parajump-a parachute landing simulator. We passed by sand volleyball courts, tug of war contests, flow rider, indoor skydiving, and beach to get there.  We rode a golf cart to the top to begin the adventures.  I thought the ropes course would be easy and not scary but I started to get worried after the first section. Yikes! I'm getting too old for things like this.  Luckily Todd was right ahead of me and talked me through the course.  The kids did great and we all had a fun time.  

from Sophie: so this week we went to mega zip and we did ropes corse and it was hard and fun but not so hard at the end and then the parajump and it felt like you fell of a cliff but it had a safe landing and then the mega zip it was a huge zip line and brooke got  stuck at the end and the rock wall and bunjijumping  so rock wall was brigham brookie and dad and brookie went to the top dad was almost there and brigham's fingers were dead so he didn't get that far and bunji jumping was brynn and me so brynn did 2 back flips and almost 3 i did 1 almost 2 . the end

from Brynn: universal studios was really fun. i was seriously so excited. i jumped, yelled and skipped the whole way to transformers. we went on that like 5 times!! next was the mummy ride. i loved it but sophie cried. (we went on it 3 times after that and then it became her favorite ride:) next we went to far far away for shrek and slushies. they were really good. the shrek ride was like 2 seconds. the water show was cool. really loud though. after that we went to a market and ended up at a camera house arguing with the guy trying to tell him that we dont need a camera lense. (my favorite line: it's like a gift from heaven). hahhaha. mega zip was pretty awesome too. the ropes course was cool but hard. i liked watching sophie do it because she looked really little and cute doing it. the para jump thingy was also really fun. it felt like i was floating kinda. the zip line was one of my favorites. i was hooked on with sophie and that made us go really fast. at the end brooke got stuck so the worker had to go get her. then sophie and i did the trampoline thing. i did double backflips and i also fell on my neck. hope you all have a good week! (I'm done)

from Brooke: Singapore has been so fun! I love all the travel we've been able to get in even if it means lots of online school :). The markets, gardens, restaurants, and parks rock. This place is so picturesque. AND CLEAN!

Sunday: 11:00 church today. It felt weird to be in a ward in Asia; all other Sundays spent in Asia have been in branches. And in a normal looking church building (except is is tall and skinny) with a chapel, and pews and a cultural hall!  The ward members are great. We met some people in Anthropologie in Utah this summer, and then saw them during first hour today! Really nice folks all around.  They kept asking, "are you new in the ward?" Fun to see the Garners from AZ and catch up for a minute.  Singapore looks good on them.  The bishop offered to have Brigham and Brooke attend their youth conference at the end of October...something to think about! The kids all had a great day at church, the teachers and members made them feel welcome.  

from Todd:  I really like to see the different wards and branches.  The Singapore Farth(4th) Ward felt like a normal ward somewhere in the US (outside of Utah /Arizona/ Idaho/So Cal).  Like a North Carolina ward.  Lots of good people, youth...from a variety of places.  Lots of turnover here as well like in Shenzhen.

The expats here live large.  No real sacrifices.  Lots of good food, clean, good transportation, English speakers.....Expensive however.  

photos (most taken by Brooke)