November 8, 2010 – it seems it was the hurry up and wait game today. We arrived to the airport on time and went to our gate only to find out our flight was delayed because of bad weather in San Francisco, so we had to wait. We had some of the Hawaii fans from the Boise State – Hawaii game on board our flight. They already had tight connection so the delay made some of them almost impossible to make them. Everyone hoped that all of the planes were going to be delayed so they would not miss their plane! When we got into San Francisco the stewardess asked all those who were not making the really tight connections to stay in their seats until the others had gotten off. Everyone was actually very cooperative and the Hawaii passengers got off with the best chance possible to make their connections. We then got off our plane and headed to the international terminal to wait out the 4 hours before we leave for Beijing. We ate breakfast, walked and talked to use up as much time as we could. We then went to our gate and waited. Then I began to get frustrated as I will tell you about in the next paragraph…

People at airports drive me nuts!!! Each person thinks they are special and need to go to the front of the line. Today in San Francisco they started calling those in First Class, or 1K mileage (which we are) to start in a particular line. All of a sudden there were probably 50 people in that line ahead of us. We knew that was probably not correct, there should not be that many in those two catagories, but we waited patiently in line anyway thinking that some would realize they were in the wrong line and move out…well no one moved out and people began coming from behind us and going in front of us go get into the line. Grrr!!! One man in case just walked up from behind on my right and tried to cut in between me and Floyd who was ahead of me. I decided to be hard core about it and kept my computer bag rolling just as close to Floyd as I could and crowded him out. Oh yes, I also said to him “excuse me, I was already in line” to which he replied “have at it” and stepped back. This is totally out of character for me but I had just had it! Soon afterwards they started checking everyone’s boarding passes in the line and directing those in the wrong line to go to the right one. Things went much faster then.

The last trip over to China the airplane food was disgusting…greasy nastiness. It has been the same Teriyaki Chicken on that flight since we started going to China in January of 2009. The problem is that they must be using new venders now or something, because it has gotten progressively worse. But last time it made me physically sick. This time I ordered low fat, but someone pushed the wrong key or something and I wound up with low calorie…which uses sugar substitutes (which my stomach cannot tolerate), salad with no dressing (which is the bagged kind with nitrites on the lettuce…which I also cannot tolerate), a mystery entrée – some kind of grain with chicken or something on it and some kind of a Spanish sauce – really not sure what all it was other than almost not edible! To add insult to injury…they changed the menu for the regular food this time. It was chicken and dressing which looked better than what I got. Go figure!!!

It seems we also had movie problems (our section’s videos were working fine so I was watching the movie with no problem), but apparently some of the screens and reading lights were not working properly so they had to re-boot the whole system due to a circuit problem. This took about 20 minutes to do. That was fine, I could deal with that…I would just have to watch the beginning of the movie over again…no problem. Well the movie came back on as scheduled…then a little while it went off again…apparently they were re-booting again! Grrr! Then when it came back on again they started a different movie. They never did finish the one I had started watching. After these minor hiccups, we arrived in Beijing on time.

Then our luggage, which has priority handling and is supposed to come out first because of how many miles we travel each year (we kind of get special treatment in some things) did not come out for more than 20 minutes after we arrived at the carrousel. Finally it got there and we went out to meet our driver but he was nowhere in sight, so we waited probably another 20 minutes…with Floyd making phone calls to his co-workers to try to find out where he was. Apparently he missed us when we came out of the baggage area so he was still waiting for us. He came hurrying over as soon as he got the phone call that we were there and waiting. This flight sounds really bad but usually things go smoothly and uneventful…usually nothing to write about. We made up for lost time I think this time!

We finally got to our apartment and unpacked our things, had a quick bite to eat and headed to bed soon. We were exhausted.

November 9, 2010 – I guess since I have done it for everyone else…Happy Birthday to me! LOL (That is low key!)

Today I finished organizing the thing I unpacked. I feel like I have a cold or bad allergies so I have started on cold medication. We will see what happens. I also treated myself to lunch for my birthday. I went to one of the local restaurants and had a sandwich. It was a nice treat from me. Floyd also took me out to dinner at another local restaurant. It was a very enjoyable evening. The cold medication is not doing a whole lot of good at this point. My nose is like a hose and won’t stop dripping.

November 10, 2010 – today I doubled my medication for my cold (it says to take 1 to 2 tablets, yesterday I took one, today I took 2)…that was a mistake! I have had medicine head and was in a fog all day. Yuck!

November 11, 2010 – Happy Veterans Day to everyone back home. I spent the day just relaxing and working on the computer. I feel better today but not on top of world yet.
November 12, 2010 – we had great news today, it seems we will have 4 grandbabies born in a time span of 9 months. Our foster-daughter had a baby on October 14th, they named her Abbey. Our son Jeff and his wife Rhiannon are expecting their 4th child (a boy, which will make 2 boys and 2 girls for them). Our daughter Lacee and her husband Mike are expecting their first child, a boy, around the end of March. Now our daughter Janelle and her husband Michael have announced that they are expecting their first baby in early July. It is too early to know what it is…and they have decided not to find out. So looks like I am going to be a very busy Grandmother!

November 25, 2010 – HAPPY THANKSGIVING to everyone back in the U.S.A. Floyd is working from the apartment today as his co-workers had a meeting in another part of China and he did not have to go. It is a normal work day here though for everyone else. We will have a simple “Thanksgiving” meal tonight consisting of broiled chicken, stuffing, baked yam, veggies, fruit, rolls and salad. That certainly is plenty!!! The challenge I have over here, I have mentioned before, is that I do not have a regular oven (just a toaster oven and a microwave) so it is hard to fix a lot of the regular things I would at home. Besides, we are having some dinner groups from Church and we will be eating at someone else’s home that does have an oven. So we will have all the regular things then. I will be bringing a fruit salad since that is easy for me. It should be fun…there is supposed to be around 25 coming. We are looking forward to it.

I seem to get worse and worse about keeping this blog up. The days just run together and I have not been able to make myself sit down and write every single day and there are many days that nothing happens that would be worth reading about.

November 27, 2010 – Today we had our “official” Thanksgiving dinner with ALL the trimmings. I think we do not need to eat for a couple days now. Everything was so wonderful, we all brought something to add to the meal. We sat and visited and had an enjoyable day.

November 28, 2010 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DAUGHTER-IN-LAW JENNIFER!!! After church today we went over to a friend’s house for dinner. We brought some books over from the U.S. for them a couple months ago so they wanted to treat us to dinner to thank us. We had a wonderful afternoon. Thanks Carlson’s!

December 1, 2010 – there really hasn’t been too much happening this week, the air is really, really bad so I have stayed in as much as I can. I would like to share an article that was in the China Daily about the air…I will also be having Floyd download a couple pictures that show how bad it is. In the 2 years we have been coming here, this is the first time it has made our lungs hurt and our throats scratchy. This article was about the air earlier in the month but it has been much the same, except when winds come through in the night and whoosh the pollution away.

This is from the China Daily News, Tuesday, November 30, 2010 written by Joseph Christian.
Beijing’s Jekyll and Hyde fight for better air quality “In Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the good Dr. Jekyll fights with the evil inside him, which turns into his split personality, Mr. Hyde.

“Through the pages of the book, the battle wages on. Jekyll has his victories but in the end Hyde overwhelms him and the goodness of Jekyll is lost forever.

“It might seem strange to you but it reminds me of Beijing’s battle with pollution.

“Two Fridays ago, the sound of my alarm clock jolted me awake. As I reached to turn it off I noticed very little light was making its way through the crack in my curtains. There was no way that it could have been 8 o’clock already, it was too dark; bit it was.

“I pushed open the curtains to greet the day but only found myself face-to-face with Beijing’s own version of Mr. Hyde; its infamous “mist”. As it swirled about, a slight hint of sulfur tingled in my nostrils. That day, it was really thick and unfortunately I had already made plans that would force me to run around Beijing till well into the evening.

“When I finally got back home, I sat down in my chair and took a deep breath and I noticed that my chest was tight and sore. It was like I had just done 500 pushups and smoked a pack of cigarettes. I spent the next 20 minutes coughing up gunk and blowing the darkened contents of my nose into a tissue.

“The next day, I learned that the official air quality in Beijing that day was 312. In case you don’t know, anything over 250 is considered not just dangerous but hazardous to your health. No wonder my chest hurt, it had been ravaged by Mr. Hyde all day.

“The next day, on Sunday, I woke and, with a bit of apprehension, moved to open the curtains. To my delight, it was Jekyll who greeted me in the form of a blue, sunny and windy day.

“It seems to me that Jekyll and Hyde are in an immense struggle over the skies of Beijing. I wonder who will win.”

Right now the air is bad again but the wind is supposed to pick up again tonight, hopefully the air will be good in the morning for my last day in Beijing this trip. I will not be entering again until our trip back to Beijing in January. Until then, we hope you all have a Happy Holiday Season!

Just one last thing; HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR DAUGHTER LACEE HAWKINS on Saturday, December 4th. Have a good day Lacee!

September 29, 2010 – well I must say, I have been less than diligent with the blog since I last posted. We have both been busy, Floyd with work and me with a slide presentation of our bike ride this year. Both very time consuming! So we leave to go back to the U.S. tomorrow and this will be my last post for the month. Sorry.

Biker runs over rich man’s kid – a blessing in disguise
A businessman from Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, whose daughter was knocked down by a motorcyclist, gave up the idea of claiming compensation from the culprit, and instead, gave him 1,700 yuan ($250 USD).
On Sunday, Cheng Zhiwei set out to trace the biker who rammed into his daughter and fled the scene. The aim was to get the culprit to pay the girl’s medical bills, which ran up to a few thousand yuan.
On tracing the perpetrator, surnamed (last name) She, to his shabby home in the outskirts of the city, Cheng didn’t have the heart to ask him for money.
She, in his 30’s, does a few odd jobs to support his ailing parents. He isn’t married because he can’t afford to feed another mouth.
Feeling sorry for the family, Cheng handed She all the money he had in his pocket and promised to help him financially in the future.
Cheng told the family he too was born to a very poor family. (Yangtze Evening News)

Sometimes it takes a “tragedy” to put things in perspective. Kind of makes you stop and think. Until November, good bye.

September 6, 2010 –we arrived back in China today. We had a unique trip over… a friend of ours was being married in San Diego on Sept. 4th so we flew to San Diego on the 3rd and spent the night there. We got up the next morning and drove to the San Diego Temple for the wedding and then drove an hour or more to the reception in Covina. We spent the night in Ontario, California (which was close to the reception and to an airport) so we could fly out from there to San Francisco Sunday morning and then on to Beijing. That is a lot of miles in a few days! It was a lovely wedding and we are so glad we took the time to go! Unfortunately the change in food, the stress of traveling and change in routine all took its toll on my IBS. I was sick most of Sunday with it, and the fact that the food on the plane was greasy and gross this time really did not help things a bit! I think I will bring my own food from now on…not an easy task but definitely necessary! Because I was not feeling well, I sent Floyd to the store with a list of groceries so I could stay at the apartment. He did a great job bringing home what I needed.
September 7, 2010 – I am feeling a bit better today but just kicked back and stayed in the apartment. I did computer work and finished organizing things in the apartment. We were put in a 2 bedroom apartment this time (they just lock off the 2nd bedroom and charge us the same as a 1 bedroom), it is much more spacious and I really kind of like it better. It is much friendlier for having company over as there is more room. I would like to see if they could put us in the same apartment type (could be on the 7th, 8th, or 9th floor) each time…sure would be nice!
September 8, 2010 – I finally got back to Rosetta Stone to learn Chinese today. I did a review lesson and was surprised at how much I still understood…I must stop with the review and move ahead to progress though…ugh! It is hard but…I can do it…lol. I also went to the grocery store to stock up on a few things that I did not have Floyd pick up on Monday. I find I have to purchase groceries frequently here because I cannot shop as I do in the U.S. and load tons of things into the car and drive home. Here I have to carry everything, as I walk to and from the store about a block away.
September 9, 2010 – HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY TO OUR SON MATT AND HIS WIFE JENNIFER! I think today is another lazy day. I will just do computer work and some cooking. I might even do some jewelry. I recently went to the store with my granddaughter Katie, as she wanted to make some jewelry for herself and wanted some Grandma time. When I saw what she was doing I decided I could do it too. I purchased a few items then and have bought some other things since then. It is fun to actually make something for myself, I have been to the stores lately looking for a specific color scheme of jewelry only to find it does not exist or is way too expensive, soooooooo…I will do it myself! This afternoon I got an email from Floyd…entitled “Help”. At first it startled me, I hoped that nothing was wrong! I opened it quickly only to find he could not download a file he needed so he was asking me to try to download it, save it and then send it back to him. I tried several times with no success, the file took forever and a day to download, then forever to save then the system couldn’t handle sending it. Several times it just told me there were errors, then it was too big, then it was going to take 50 minutes to send…grrrr. So I put on my thinking cap, and thought out loud how can I do this so it works right? I then cut and pasted it into one of my programs and re-saved it. This file was totally manageable and was to Floyd within minutes…yea! Pat myself on the back…LOL
September 10, 2010 – today I need to make spaghetti sauce as we are having friends, Bruce and Effe Simpson from church, over to dinner tonight. We don’t get to have anyone over often so we really enjoy it when we get a chance. We are doing it pot luck – I am doing the spaghetti and salad and Effe is doing the fruit, bread and dessert. Should be fun! I am looking forward to it. Also…laundry day…ugh! It takes forever with the machine we have, better get started first thing! It takes over 3 hours per load so it is hard to get more than one load done in a day unless you start early.
It is now 3 PM here in Beijing and 1 AM in Idaho. Floyd just got a call on his U.S. cell phone from our daughter Terri, she says that our granddaughter Katie had her appendix rupture and that they are transporting her from the Meridian hospital to the downtown Boise hospital to do surgery. I am now waiting on pins and needles to find out how the surgery went and how she is doing. It is so hard being over here when things go wrong back in the states! My prayers are with her.
September 11, 2010 – I got a message from Terri letting me know they are still waiting…it seems the doctor is too busy to get back to her, so Katie is just sitting around in her room in pain. Grrrrrrr! Later the doctor decided to do a gallbladder scan to make sure there isn’t something wrong with it too. Luckily Terri has a laptop computer at the hospital with her and they have free wi-fi!!! She can keep me filled in a bit more easily so I am less worried. The results are back…gallbladder is ok but her appendix has to go.
September 12, 2010 – they finally took out Katie’s appendix after a much too long wait! The poor kid was in misery. It had not ruptured but was badly swollen and really needed to go! Speedy recovery kiddo!
September 13, 2010 – Katie is home from the hospital today, she is very sore but doing well. She sleeps a lot which is not uncommon for someone who has had surgery and is on pain medicines. She looked good and I think she was glad to see her Grandma on Skype. We have always had a very close relationship! She told her Mom while she was in the hospital that she wished I was there with her.
Floyd has a long work week traveling. He left this morning and will not get back to Beijing until around midnight Friday night. The company offered for me to go along with him but with some of the problems I have with my IBS it could be a nightmare for me…questionable food, different routine and questionable bathrooms…a real formula for disaster so I chose to stay here and enjoy the quiet…lol.
September 13-17, 2010 - Floyd’s trip to Xinjiang (Sin-Jong) Province
On Monday morning we took a 4 hour flight to Urumqi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cr%C3%BCmqi), the capital city of Xinjiang province (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang). Urumqi is the largest city in the western half of the People's Republic of China, and has earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the most remote city from any sea in the world. Xinjiang is the most northwestern and largest province in China. It has 1/6th the land mass of China, but only 1/16th the population. This is also the site of all the protests, rioting and violence in the summer of 2009 between ethnic groups (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2009_%C3%9Cr%C3%BCmqi_riots). As a result, communication to the outside world was still a little challenging at times as outbound cell calls were blocked and many times I could not access Internet sites like AOL to check my email. It is interesting to note that in China, there are no different times zones like there are in the US. The local people simply handle this by running basically everything 2 hours behind Beijing. Businesses do not start functioning until about 10:00 AM rather than 8:00 AM as in Beijing. Meal times are much different as well. Lunch usually occurs around 2 to 3 in the afternoon with dinner anywhere from 8 to 10 PM. It was strange to see kids walking home from school at 7:30 PM. In looking for some reference sites to link to I found the following blog. This lady has done an excellent job of taking a lot of pictures showing what I experience on a daily basis as I travel in China. This link contains photos of food, shopping and the toilets I often have to use while traveling. I warn you ahead of time that the pictures of the toilets are gross but what I use all of the time while traveling. (http://www.janetong.com/travelling/travelling-from-kelamayi-back-to-urumqi-shopping-at-international-grand-bazaar-xinjiang-silk-road-of-china).
After we arrived in Urumqi at 2:00 PM, we had lunch and then went to our first appointment. It was a large bull stud farm where bulls are grown, housed and used to collect semen for artificial insemination. Most of the 240 head of bulls were dairy bulls, but they also had some beef bulls. They have been having some challenges that they wanted help with. They also have a dairy, but we ran out of time to visit the dairy due to a dinner appointment. We ate dinner at about 8:30 with the team from our Xinjiang feed plant. By the time we finally got to the hotel in Changji and into bed, it was 11 PM.
Tuesday morning, we had breakfast at about 8:00 AM, which is really like 6:00 to the local people. We then visited our own feed mill and then a large dairy business, that was a milk processor, dairy, and breeding and research facility. We then drove for about 2 hours and had lunch around 3:00 PM before visiting another business. This business had a feed mill, milk processor and dairy. We visited the feed mill and the dairy. This owner is very ambitious with lots of plans to expand. After visiting the dairy we ate dinner at 10 PM. We finally arrived at our hotel in Shihezi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shihezi) at 12:30 AM and I crawled into bed at 1:00 AM.
Wednesday morning we had to get up at 6 to be picked up just after 7 AM to drive to meeting site. We were putting on a training meeting for dairy producers. Now, remember the time difference so we were up very early as compared to the normal activity. Thus, we had to eat breakfast on the road, later after things opened up. Once we got near the meeting site, they looked for a place to eat. The first place they stopped at was a very small concession stand type facility along the road. As I surveyed the facility and quickly watch them “clean” a bowl, I reminded them that while I am willing to eat just about anything, they might want to think twice about me eating here since we had a full day of meetings to do. They agreed so we went on to find a more formal eating facility. We found one that we thought would be better, but wasn’t sure once we went inside. We decided to stay and eat here anyway. To try to make sure the foods were safe as possible I only ate things that had been cooked at high temperature. I had a good breakfast of steamed vegetable and meat dumplings. Once we finished here it was off to our meeting. The meeting was attended by about 75 people. I spoke on where the diary industry was and how we progressed to where we are and then taught them the processes they could do to make the same progress, only much quicker than it took us in the US due to the technology that is available today. After the meeting we had a group lunch at 3:00 PM. We then drove for a couple of hours back to the bull farm to visit their dairy. They have a fairly good facility, but they need some changes in their management and how things are done. I explained to them how to easily make many of the changes and they were very appreciative. We then drove back to Changji for a unique authentic Uygur dinner at 10 PM. The Uygur people are the indigenous people to this region. They have a different language, both written and spoken. They also have a different culture as well as food tastes. The meal was mostly meat, prepared many different ways – some on skewers, some spicy, some not, some in dishes with vegetables, etc. It was interesting but nothing spectacular. We got to the hotel just before midnight and I was able to get into bed at 12:15 AM. I had just gotten to sleep when I got a call from one of my clients in the US (it was morning there) telling me he needed new diets for his cows as he had a forage change. I went back to sleep after setting my alarm for 6:00 AM so I could get up and do his diets since I already knew I did not have Internet access to email the diets to the dairyman. I figured I would deal with it in the morning and was just too tired to do them that night.
Thursday I was up at 6 AM to do the diets. I decided to shower first to help wake me up after the long day and short night. Boy was I in for a surprise! Since this was like 4:00 AM their time, no one had been up yet to clear all of the water from the pipes and since I was on the 14th floor, there was a lot of water to be cleared. Just let it suffice to say I was very awake when I got out of the shower. The “warm” water finally arrived just as I was rinsing off the last of the soap. I got the diets finished and then had to figure out how to get an Internet connection to the outside world so I could email the diets. Fortunately my travel companion and coworker was able to get access so I was finally able to get access and got the diets sent off. After breakfast, we were picked up to be taken on a tour of the area. This is a part of the culture in China. When visiting the areas like this, the local teams feel it is necessary to show the visiting members around the area and send them home with a gift. We went to a high mountain lake called Tianchi Lake or Heavenly Lake. It is in one of China’s national parks. It was beautiful and very similar to our mountain lakes. There were many beautiful things to see. I did take a few pictures that are posted in the Heavenly Lake album. We did a lot of walking. All of the trails were well maintained and had either wooden or stone walkways. We covered some very steep areas and climbed up and down many steps. I knew my legs were going to tell me about it the next day. WE took a bus from the parking area to the lake and then rode a cable car back down. The lady that I linked to her blog earlier also visited this area and has some pictures (http://www.janetong.com/heavenlylake). We then drove back to Urumqi. We walked through a section of town on the way to a dinner show. We saw some open air markets that had all different varieties of foods, both cooked and uncooked. I saw people there that were apparently buying the nights meal to take home and prepare. We got back to the hotel, the Hongshan Hotel, and after taking care of my emails and situations that needed to be addressed in the US (I was able to get some good connections in this business hotel) I finally got into bed at 12:15 AM.
Friday, we were up at 6 AM so we could get to the airport for our flight back to Beijing. I found Xinjiang province very beautiful and interesting. The weather and the land is very similar to Idaho. There are many different crops grown here. They are famous for their watermelons and another melon that is shaped like a watermelon but has a green skin similar to a cantaloupe with meat similar to the cantaloupe as well. I also saw many different orchards, vineyards, cotton fields and corn fields. About 60% of the cotton is still harvested by hand. As I mentioned earlier it is a custom to give gifts to the visitors, I came back to Beijing with a gift box full of raisins, made for long green grapes, dried apricots, almonds and pecans. The raisins are very good and sweet. As you can see, a week on the road can be pretty intense and tiring. I think the reason for the day of touring was to try to make up for fitting a full weeks work into the three days before. We had a very good week, but I was glad to get back to Beijing.
September 16, 2010 – my day started out as normal, just getting some things done on the computer and then preparing for the day, when I heard from the other room “Goodbye”…the words I hate over here. It means either my computer has shut down AOL and might give me lots of problems getting back on it or, as it is the case today, that the internet is down for the whole hotel complex. The lady that came to try to figure out what was wrong took quite a while trying to help me get it back up before she called someone on the phone and was informed that it was all down throughout the whole complex. Ugh…not good news!!! She thought it would be up in a couple hours…so far it is now 4 hours and nothing. Hmmmm…it has now been 6 hours and nothing. This is getting aggravating! If it is not back up by dinner time, I will have to go around the corner to a small restaurant for dessert and free wi-fi. This is almost as aggravating as last trip when the electricity went off 8 times in 2 days! Well it is now 6 PM and the internet has been down for more than 7 hours. Now I have another change in plans handed to me…it is pouring down rain outside and I do not want to walk up to the restaurant with my computer to get on the internet. I can’t take a chance of getting my computer wet out there. Guess I will have to wait and see if it is on again in the morning. Boy I am so frustrated! I sure hope no urgent emails come my way until then!
I got impatient since the rain seemed to have stopped so I went around the block to the restaurant and had a dessert. I guess you might say the joke was on me…my computer would not hook up to their internet…grrrr!! Now I really do have to be patient…not one of my better virtues sometimes. Until tomorrow…
September 17, 2010 – well there is still no internet this morning! I guess I was hoping for a miracle or something. I know I have at least one email I HAVE to retrieve before Sunday. The lady that does the bulletin for church is going to be out of town, and she knows I do a lot of computer work, so she asked me to print it off for her and take it to church to have copied. I don’t know what I will do if I still don’t have internet!
It is raining again this morning, it still baffles my mind how resourceful the Chinese are! As I have mentioned before I think, many, many Chinese do not own cars so they ride busses, trains or subways but there are also many that ride bikes. It is these riders that amaze me…I can see many who have ponchos on that cover not just the rider but the handle bars also as well as many riding with an umbrella up…I am sure I would crash if I tried that! I guess they really have no choice if they want to get to work.
Well at 3 PM today they finally restored the internet and at the same time Floyd got home. I guess he talked the other guy into coming home early because of some problems he was having with one of his clients in the U.S. He needed to take care of these problems but with very limited internet and phone service that was almost impossible. So glad to have him home!

July 5, 2010 – we arrived back in Beijing today. Our flight was both good and bad…the good was that we were bumped to First Class for the flight from Boise to San Francisco and to Business Class for the flight from San Francisco to Beijing. It was very comfortable and we were less tired when we got here. Boy, a person could get used to this…if only it was more affordable! We boarded our plane in San Francisco and were actually a bit early backing away from the gate as our flight was not completely full and everyone got on in a timely manner. Then came the bad news…someone had loaded the cargo or baggage wrong, apparently distributed the weight wrong or something, so they had to pull back up to the gate and fix the problem. That took almost 1 ½ hours so we had to just sit there in the plane and wait. Ugh! Then after the long patience-testing wait, they were done we took off for Beijing. The flight itself was pleasant and uneventful. Just as we were set to arrive in Beijing, the Captain came onto the intercom and announced that we were almost there and that it was HOT…like 104 degrees. He was right, as soon as we walked off the plane it was like getting hit in the face with a blow torch. By the time we got to our apartment we were “well roasted”. Floyd’s boss took us out to dinner at a restaurant close to our apartment this evening. That was really nice since we did not have to fix dinner that first night. When it came time to go to bed we were quite tired and thoroughly ready!
July 6, 2010 – another hot day, it reached 104 degrees again today. I had to walk up to the grocery store to buy groceries and I can attest to the fact that it was HOT! By the time I got home with 2 large, rather heavy bags of groceries I was soaking wet. We buy bottled water as the water is not completely safe even after boiling (boiling does not take out the heavy metals only the bacteria, etc.) With the bottled water, fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products, etc. it is way too much for one person to carry all at once so I had to make a second trip later in the day, this was another hot walk. Floyd was helping conduct training meetings today, tomorrow and part of Thursday so I am not sure what time he will be getting home.
July 7, 2010 – today is a bit quiet and is not supposed to get quite as hot. We will see…right now it is 11 in the morning and is already 82 degrees. It is “only” supposed to get to 93 degrees today. Another good day to stay inside in the air conditioning if I don’t have to go out!
July 8, 2010 – HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY TO OUR GRANDDAUGHTER ADDISON (our son Jeff’s youngest daughter). She is such a little spark plug, so full of life and mischief! What a blessing she is to our family. We celebrated her birthday along with Dylan’s (Jeff’s oldest) 11th birthday on the 2nd of July (his actual birthday) before we left. Jeff and Rhiannon also announced during our last trip over here to China that they are expecting another baby at the end of January. Dylan really would like a brother since he has 2 sisters right now, only time will tell!
After his training meeting today, Floyd and Dr. Wu went to do a follow-up visit with one of the farms from the farm audit visits Floyd did last trip just before we went home. The farm is close to Beijing so he was actually able to be home tonight.
July 9, 2010 – today is supposed to be hot and cloudy. Interestingly though, it is 84 degrees and raining hard right now. I can imagine what the humidity will be outside after the storm quits! Luckily I decided to go to the grocery store before noon today… had I waited, I certainly would have gotten wet!
July 10, 2010 – we spent a quiet day together. It rained most of the day so we could not go out for our usual Saturday walk. We caught up on some computer work and started some spaghetti sauce to have ready for Sunday dinner. We were taken out to dinner by our friends the Simpsons as we bring some things they need from the U.S. each time we come over. It saves them a great deal in postage so they usually treat us to dinner.
July 11, 2010 – I brought the cookbook CD’s to church today to distribute to those who are interested. Many people are out of town at this time so I will have to bring them back each week until all who wanted it have a chance to get them. Everyone is so excited about them. I hope they enjoy them! The cookbook turned out very good in our opinion. We had a very interesting meeting as one of our speakers is from one of the Latin American countries and only speaks Spanish. . He is the son of a man who works for the foreign Embassy. We are very fortunate that several men speak Spanish fluently in our congregation so they are able to translate for him The interesting part was that he gave his talk in Spanish with an interpreter translating to English then there was another translator in the side of the chapel who translates into Chinese for those whose English is limited. So, this young man’s talk was translated from Spanish to English to Chinese.
July 12, 2010 – today I went over to help our friend Effe Simpson teach a summer class to some of the students at the college she teaches English at. She is teaching cooking of American foods. These are the simplest of foods that these girls can do on their own, nothing complicated. This week she is teaching potato salad and French bread. She is using my recipe for French bread that I have used for years and years, so I went over to help her teach. There were MANY girls interested in the classes, so she set them for 3 hours each class and they are being held at 10AM and 1 PM on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday with just the morning class on Thursday. Anyway, that was what was planned according to the number of sign ups. I got up and got ready early so I could get there early to help her set up on Monday. Unfortunately, no one showed up for the first class. Hmmm…
I had also sent her a recipe for honeycomb candy I had seen on the Internet. It seemed very easy so we decided to give it a try when no one showed up, that way we could “work the bugs out of it”. Well, the first batch we tried to do exactly what the recipe said and we burned it so bad it was smoking…ugh! Stinky! We tried it a second time with some adjustments, burned it again. Not as bad as the first batch but still not good! We thought, the third time is the charm, so we tried again with more adjustments. We did not burn this batch but decided it was not great tasting candy and would be way too hard for the girls so we abandoned that recipe. We had girls show up for the afternoon class and they absolutely loved making the salad and went wild over making bread for themselves! It was a lot of fun. We decided after rejecting the other candy recipe, that we would make the good old fashioned no bake peanut butter candy my kids and I used to make frequently at Family Home Evening. This recipe is so easy; all you do is measure into a bowl - 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup powdered milk and ¼ cup honey. You then just mix it with your hands until it makes “dough”. After that you just roll it into little balls and enjoy! I went to the store that evening and picked up the ingredients (my apartment is much closer to a store than hers is).
July 13, 2010 - today I got over to her apartment early again…and again no one showed up for the morning class. We visited and tested the peanut butter candy in the morning. It turned out great and we decided this would be a keeper…easy enough for them to make…yea! Again we had girls show up for the afternoon class and again the same reactions!
July 14, 2010 – I wound up with a bit of intestinal distress this week so I opted to not go over to Effe’s apartment this morning until things calmed down for me. I have been having this problem since Sunday but am usually better by afternoon. I felt better and went over and taught the class this afternoon. Very worthwhile, everyone loved the things “they cooked”!
July 15, 2010 – this morning some ladies Effe knows from a craft workshop she takes, took the class instead of the college students. What a hoot these ladies are and boy did they love the food! There was quite a variety, two only speak Chinese, two speak some English and one spoke English quite well. It was interesting getting these ladies to stir or cut things in a way they are not accustomed to since they eat quite differently than we do in America.
July 16, 2010 – today I stayed in the apartment and caught up on laundry, etc. since I have been gone most of the week helping with the cooking classes. It has been a fun week though.
July 17, 2010 – Saturday is our usual day together and today we decided to take a walk in the park. Unfortunately by the time we left (around 11 AM) it was already hot and very muggy. Our humidity has been in the 70’s most of the time this trip, although on days it is raining or just after raining it seems to be higher. With the temperatures being in the 80’s and 90’s almost every day since we got here, you can imagine it is like a sauna most of the time. In fact, they call it “Sauna Season” over here right now. We spent the rest of the day, after taking a shower after our walk, just kind of relaxing and doing computer work. We finished the day with dinner at the restaurant just up the block from our apartment called Element Fresh (click here if you are interested in seeing what it looks like and what is on the menu), it has wonderful food and is a nice clean restaurant.
July 18, 2010 – the summer has really taken its toll on the attendance at church. So many have gone home after finishing their assignments for the year or are vacationing for the summer. There was probably only about 2/3 of the amount of people who usually attend. We still had wonderful meetings full of the spirit though.
July 19, 2010 – this week I have opted to not go to Effe’s classes except the class on Thursday when the women come for it. This week she is teaching them how to make BLT sandwiches and pudding. It was nice to stay at the apartment and get some computer work done.
July 20, 2010 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY TO OUR SON-IN-LAW MICHAEL BAZALA (Janelle’s husband). We hope he has a really nice day. All we could do from here was send him an e-mail card wishing him a good day!
July 21, 2010 – just had another low key day, stayed around the apartment and kept cool.
July 22, 2010 – today I went over to Effe’s class and helped her teach the ladies how to make a BLT sandwich and pudding. It went well other than one of the ladies brought her 2 children with her, a daughter with the English name of “Angel” who was probably around 10 or 11 and her son named “TomTom” who was 5…this young man was a real handful. As in most Chinese families, the son really rules the roost and gets what he wants, including attention. When we were through cooking, we all retired to the living room to talk and he began to get wilder and wilder wanting to play and get into things. After a half an hour of this, Effe stood up and let the group know that that was all she had for the class and that she would see them next week. When she came back in from walking them out, she had that “cross eyed, slumped body, crooked mouth” weary look that we get when we have had enough! It was funny. I hope he behaves a bit better next week when she brings them again!
July 23, 2010 – I had one of my anxiety attacks during the night last night so I did not get to sleep until around 4:30 this morning. Floyd quietly got up, got ready and when he left for work, he didn’t wake me. He sent me an email asking me to let him know how I was doing when I got up. He is such a good man! Thanks! I am just taking it easy today as I am still not quite back to normal. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
July 24, 2010 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY TO MY DAD! (Merilee’s) Even though he passed away 6 years ago, I always think of him on his birthday and wish him a good day! I miss him and know he would be so excited about our assignment over here in China, if he was still around. We once again got up and took a walk this morning. It was hot and very humid so we walked slowly as to not overwhelm ourselves and make us sick. It was nice to get out and walk though. We noticed flowers in the park that are just getting ready to bloom and realize that they will probably be finished blooming before we get back. We hope when we come back in September it will not be quite so humid. Each day looks like it is terribly smoggy because of the moisture in the air…almost like a fog. It is really hard to describe.
July 25, 2010 – we enjoyed a wonderful Sunday at our church meetings here. Today and last week the speakers in Sacrament were students from BYU who are studying abroad for about 6 weeks. They are dynamic speakers and brought much insight and lessons to us. I had an “aha” moment today during one of the talks. Maybe this is nothing new for others but it was for me…she was talking about repentance and how important it is to repent each week. In my own simple mind I have always thought that repentance was for only things done wrong and thus needing repentance, but this young lady quoted the bible dictionary on repentance. It says “the translation from Greek denotes a change of mind, i.e., a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world. Since we are born into conditions of mortality, repentance comes to mean a turning of the heart and will to God.” This means getting closer to God…wow, that just struck me and gave me a new outlook on repentance and partaking of the Sacrament each week.
July 26, 2010 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR GRANDDAUGHTER HAILEY! (Mandy and Shane’s oldest daughter). We hope she has a really great day. Again, we sent her a gift before we left the U.S. so she could enjoy it. I also sent her an email Birthday wish though. Their girls are growing too fast! I wish I could see them more often but it just doesn’t seem to work out.
July 27, 2010 – today is quiet, I just need to do some computer work, some laundry and start mentally getting myself ready to pack and head back home. I worked on the “dolls” I have been making for a humanitarian aid project we are doing at church. We made ours out of cotton material instead of flannel as is in the instructions. They are easy to make and hopefully will help some child who has need of something special. (Click here for a link to these dolls, if anyone is interested or curious).
July 28, 2010 – since there were so many no-shows at the classes Effe taught last week, she eliminated some of the classes. They are now only on Wednesday afternoons and Thursday mornings. This is really great as I was wondering how I would help her teach all day for 3 days (Mon-Wed) and half a day Thursday, then be completely packed and ready to leave for home Friday morning! There were about 8 girls at the class today. We taught them how to bake potatoes in the microwave, something we take for granted in the U.S., but it is new to these girls. Effe had them try the potatoes with just butter at first, then with grated cheese, salsa and chili on them. They loved them. We finished off the class with my peanut butter candy, the one with equal parts peanut butter (usually 1 cup) and powdered milk with 2 Tbsp. of honey. The challenge is that once these are in a bowl, you mix it with your hands until it holds together and comes clean of the sides. They wanted to only use spoons to mix it and it does not work correctly. All in all though, I think they enjoyed making it and will also enjoy eating it!
July 29, 2010 – today only 2 women showed up for the cooking class so we had a very relaxed time. They did not bring the peanut butter and powdered milk to make the candy but did bring potatoes. So, we had baked potatoes for lunch and just visited. The class was fun as these ladies are a kick to be around. The one who came last week and brought her 2 children, the boy that was into everything, could not come today so it was really quiet. Once I got back to the apartment it was rush time…have to pack and be ready so I will keep this short.
July 30, 2010 – today we head back to the United States. I will not post anything further about it. I will be back to China in September and will begin blogging again at that time. Bye.

May 3, 2010 – We are back again in China. The flights went well. Such a routine now! It is warm now here, with temperatures in the 80’s today. We kind of have a routine with our unpacking since everything gets put away in basically the same place…different apartment but they are set up the same. We turned in early as we were tired from a long day.
Floyd had to hit the deck running this trip! We got in Monday afternoon, Tuesday morning he had to catch a flight out to visit with dairies and hold meetings. He missed his plane coming home as the people he was with did not allow enough time to get back to the airport. This did not sit well with Floyd as he was already tired from just arriving here and then got in much later than he was expecting.
One of the first things we noticed was all the Cottonwood “fluff” in the air here. It is earlier in the season than back home. We noticed an article and picture in the newspaper…we don’t have it bad at home compared to the picture!!! I am adding the picture to our blog as well as an album of various weather conditions so you can see how bad it really was. Luckily that was in another area of the city and our area had fluff coming down but not nearly as bad!
We have a lady we have gotten to know over here this trip, her name is Kathleen. She is taking a year off from work and is traveling around the world. She is spending 3 months in Beijing, touring and learning Chinese. etc. From here she will tour a few more Asian countries and is planning on going to Spain on her next leg. Our hat is off to her…for the faith and fortitude to go to countries by herself and explore. I am not too sure I could do it.
They have been doing a huge work project across the street, apparently replacing some sort of water or sewer line. It looks like they are trying to make a career out of it. Unfortunately they do a lot of the work at night when it is cooler and as a result we can’t open windows at night to let cool air in because of the noise. We also can’t open windows during day, even if it cooler outside than in the apartment because of the diesel rig they are using to pump water fouls the air so badly. The exhaust seems to come right into the apartment window.
Because people come and go so regularly from here, that is they live here for a period of time due to work, teaching English in the colleges or come to study abroad for a period of time and then leave, it is customary to have a “Closing Social” at our church or kind of farewell party at the end of the school each year. We had the pleasure of having it happen this trip and we really enjoyed visiting with everyone before they head back for the U.S. or country they were from.
The ladies over here in our church decided this year to have everyone submit their favorite recipes and make a cookbook. They asked if anyone would be interested in helping and with the graphic art background I have I decided to volunteer some of my time. It turns out that things had stalled with making an actual book due to cost of printing. I suggested the option of doing it electronically on a CD and it was decided we would go ahead and follow through and get it made. It kind of landed in my lap and I spent MANY, MANY hours pulling things together for it. It was truly a labor of love that I will finish when we get back to the U.S. and we can purchase the CD’s to burn it on.
We moved up a little in the technology world. We purchased a couple of iPod touches with miles from our trips. It is amazing how much you can store on them to listen to or read. We are enjoying them, especially where they are so compact and easy to carry.
Over here there are quite a few beggars that post themselves close to the grocery store near us. They hit up most of the foreigners. We refuse to give them money as they ask but are not afraid to purchase some food for them. There is one gal who is very friendly. She has a couple children and sometimes I bring some food from the store for her. She is always really appreciative and is respectful to us. If we tell her not today she will say thank you anyway. Many of them follow you and keep speaking Chinese to us trying to get us to give them something. This irritates me as I do not like to be badgered!
As you can see, I have not been very good again at keeping up the blog, sorry. I am trying to catch up and will have to make myself at least write an idea each day so I can go back and “fill in the blanks”. This trip has been quite uneventful and calm, I am really enjoying it.
May 18, 2010 – today is rainy and 81 degrees F.
We cherish our evening walks when Floyd gets home from work most nights. We see such a sweet Chinese lady who has had a stroke there walking in the park almost every night we go there. What a huge challenge this must be for her as we watch her struggle through each step, partly dragging her right foot to in front of her. We feel the enormous courage this must take to go around the park. We take it so for granted as we walk once or twice around the park and realize what a struggle and how long that lap must be for her with her limitations.
The culture here has a real difference of what is acceptable than what we are accustomed to. As we were going for our walk this evening, a little boy, about 6 or 7 years old was standing on the sidewalk seeing how high he could pee on the tree. Public urination for males of all ages is very common in China. We see this along the highways as well as in the neighborhoods. Taxi drivers will stop and get out and step next to a tree to urinate. They would be arrested in the United States. We also see public urination with little girls, but not as much as boys.
May 26, 2010 – we are down to crunch week again, we head back to the U.S. on the 29th. As always we do it with such mixed emotions. We love it here in China, love the people and the culture so we are sad to leave. But on the other hand we love the United States, and especially getting to see our family, so we are happy to head out again.
May 27, 2010 – Just after we finished dinner tonight, the power went out our floor of the apartment building. They got it restored a couple of times but couldn’t keep it on, so we ended up going to bed early as there was nothing else to do. Maybe the extra sleep will help make up for the frustration.
May 28, 2010 - Off 8 times in total throughout the night and early morning. Still not sure what has caused to circuit breaker to keep tripping. It made it fun getting ready and packing to go home. Power comes on…shower, power goes off. Power comes on…blow dry my hair, power goes off. Power comes on…flat iron my hair, power actually stayed on the rest of the day…yea!
We had actually extended our stay as Floyd had to visit 6 farms the last 3 days for a large international client they are working with. They are doing nutrition and management audits of the farms and will need to follow up with the reports and recommendations when we get back home.
May 29, 2010 – we got ready and packed early this morning, quite a miracle in itself! So I will take a moment and reflect on our trip this month. This seems to be one of the fastest months we have been here even though we actually stayed one day extra because Floyd had meetings on Friday this month so we leave on Saturday instead of our usual Friday. I guess when you keep busy, the time goes by faster.

March 20, 2010 – We have a sand storm today…from our newspaper back home - The Idaho Statesman it reads: BEIJING — Tons of sand turned Beijing's sky orange as the strongest sandstorm this year hit northern China, a gritty reminder that the country's expanding deserts have led to a sharp increase in the storms.
The sky glowed Saturday and a thin dusting of sand covered Beijing, causing workers and tourists to muffle their faces in vast Tiananmen Square. The city's weather bureau gave air quality a rare hazardous ranking.
Air quality is "very bad for the health," China's national weather bureau warned. It said people should cover their mouths when outside and keep doors and windows closed.
China's expanding deserts now cover one-third of the country because of overgrazing, deforestation, urban sprawl and drought. The shifting sands have led to a sharp increase in sandstorms - the grit from which can travel as far as the western United States.
The latest sandstorm also hit the regions of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia and the provinces of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Hebei, affecting about 250 million people over an area of 312,000 square miles (810,000 square kilometers), the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
As the sandstorm moved southeast, South Korea's national weather agency issued a yellow dust advisory for Seoul and other parts of the country.
Chun Youngsin, a researcher at the Korea Meteorological Administration, said the yellow dust was expected to hit the Korean peninsula beginning Saturday afternoon and it would be "the worst yellow dust" this year.
Some flights at Beijing's international airport were delayed but eventually took off, said a woman answering phones at the airport hot line.
China has planted thousands of acres of vegetation in recent years to stop the spread of deserts in its north and west, but experts have said the work will take decades.
"The challenges ahead are still huge," China said in a report to the United Nations in 2006.
The worst recent sandstorm to hit Beijing was in 2006, when about 300,000 tons of sand were dumped on the capital.
"The situation improved tremendously after that. Thanks to the mild climate and conservation efforts, Beijing had only one sandstorm last year," Guo Hu, head of the Beijing Meteorological Station, told Xinhua on Saturday.
The closest desert area to Beijing is about 500 miles away, in the region of Inner Mongolia, Guo said.
China's dust storms were at their worst in the 1950s and '60s after campaigns to raise farm and factory output following the 1949 communist revolution stripped the soil of vegetation.
Because of those campaigns, archaeologists have found that sandstorms are reducing some packed-earth sections of the Great Wall in western China to "mounds of dirt" that may disappear in 20 years.
Today we also had our Relief Society (women’s group for church) Women’s Conference here in Beijing. I had to go out in the sandstorm to catch a taxi, luckily it wasn’t as bad where we were as many of the pictures. We had a wonderful time with Katie Hoskin as our keynote speaker. She spoke on “Charity Never Faileth” and how that actually pertains to us now. After her talk we had the opportunity to assemble hygiene kits for those in need here in China. All the items were donated by the women and we actually were able to finish 270 kits and had many more that were missing some items. Each kit was in a 1 gallon plastic bag and consisted of: 2 hand towels, 4 toothbrushes, 1 tube of toothpaste, 2 bars of soap and 2 combs. What a blessing to be able to help others in this manner! We had a wonderful time!
March 21, 2010 – today we went to church as usual. The sandstorm is pretty much over today, just the remnants all over the buildings, streets and cars. Everything is covered in a layer of dust! Over the pulpit they announced the loss of a baby for the Jensen family. It seems that she was due to deliver next week but was not feeling any movement of the baby so went to the doctor. Unfortunately, the baby had passed away so they induced her to deliver the baby. Our hearts go out to them. We pray that the Lord will envelop them with his arms of love and comfort at this time.
March 22, 2010 – Floyd had meetings late tonight as they try to wrap things up on this visit.
March 23, 2010 – Happy Birthday to Floyd’s “little” sister, Dorothy Pena!
March 26, 2010 – we headed back home to Meridian, Idaho. It is good to get home and visit with the kids and grandkids. We miss them while we are in China and enjoy seeing them. Our flight was uneventful, we rested well on the flight so we felt good when we got home.

March 1, 2010 - Here we are back “home” in Beijing again. It seems like it is getting to be too routine. It snowed just before we arrived so there was some snow on the ground. We thought winter was over so we again did not bring warm enough clothes, Floyd left his heavy down coat at home and I just bought one on sale for next year and left it home also. We can make do though. I will probably not write in the blog every day this time but I will try to mention some of the things that happen from time to time.

March 7, 2010 - Our first Sunday here and we had District Conference, which is where many of the congregations meet together to hear area speakers. It was a great meeting! Our Area Authority Elder Chu spoke to us about why we are here. He challenged us to find out why we are here in China, he said we may think it is for employment but it is not. He said the Lord has placed us here right now for a reason and it is up to us to find out why. That was very thought provoking. I don’t believe we have found out why yet.

March 8, 2010 - We had snow again today, about 2 inches or so. Floyd had to fly off this morning for work and had to trudge through the snow for a block or so to get a taxi…seems there weren’t many to be found that morning! He finally found a taxi and had a fun ride to the airport. At one point the driver was going faster than he should and traffic stopped in front of him. He slammed on the brakes and still wasn’t going to be able to stop so at the last second he swerved and they sat cross ways in the road, but missed everything. Floyd did make it safely to Yinchuan, a city about 2 hours flight West of Beijing. It was very cold and Floyd said they walked in a snow storm as they visited the farm. They must not get many Americans in the town as Floyd said while they were eating lunch a group of school kids came to the window and peered through at him. He felt like he was on exhibition. It is really giving him a better understanding on minorities and how they must often feel. The cold and snowy weather is starting to get ordinary. They say this has been the snowiest and coldest winter they have had in at least 10 years, maybe more.

March 9, 2010 - I got to go out to lunch to a local restaurant with some of the ladies from church. I ordered a chicken salad (with raisins and walnuts) sandwich on pumpkin seed bread. It was pretty good but not spectacular, it sounded better than it really was. It was a bit dry. It is always fun to spend time just talking. Great lunch, great ladies! Floyd flew back to Beijing tonight.

March 13, 2010 – we spent the day catching up on computer work although we decided to take a break and get a bite to eat for lunch then go for a walk. We had a wonderful walk in the park and enjoyed watching everyone out enjoying the “spring” weather. It was actually a beautiful day…a little warm to wear your coat but too cool to go without it. Hmm, what to do?

March 14, 2010 – well it did it again. I looked out the window this morning and thought it was foggy and thought nothing of it. I then stood up and saw something funny over on the sidewalks so I went to the window to get a better look and sure enough it was snowing again. Somehow we missed the memo or something that it was going to snow. So we later trudged off to church in the snow. It was coming down pretty good but we thought it would taper off as the morning wore on and the temperature would rise like it usually does. Much to our surprise it continued snowing all through church. When we got out of church at noon it was still snowing and continued to do so until around 4 PM. Much of that time the flakes were very large and majestic looking, the kind that look like feathers floating down after a pillow fight. Floyd had a flight out in the evening to Hohhot (in Inner Mongolia) for work and was concerned about the weather. As it turned out his flight was only delayed, not cancelled like 3 others going to the same place. They were supposed to arrive in Hohhot about 7:30. He finally got to the hotel at midnight and had a 6:30 breakfast meeting. He said he was very tired.

March 15, 2010 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our first born – Terri Lynne (Hoisington) Grammer!!!! It has been 37 years now since we first became parents to our little “Trinket”. I can remember the day as if it was yesterday! So many mysteries, so much love…and so much WORK! I wouldn’t trade it for the world. She was our “prototype”, everything got worked out on her before the others came along. That has not always made her happy when she would say “I never got away with that” and we would reply “That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t let them do it when we realized it was not that big of a deal”. We had learned to pick our battles or maybe there would be only battles and no good time. Funny how sometimes wisdom comes with age and experience.

She has been a delight to our family and a good example to the others. We love her dearly!

True confessions time… I have decided to make a quilt for each of my grandchildren for their 12th birthday. Sounds easy enough right? It should be, but I took on a bigger project with Katie’s quilt than I should have. It took me an entire year to finish piecing the blocks together – she has now turned 13…UGH red faced shame! To make a very long story short, I finished piecing it just before we came to China this time so I brought the top, the batting and the bottom layer with me. I promised myself I would tie 1 to 2 rows a day until I got it finished. I GOT IT DONE TODAY…YEAAAAAAAAAA! Now I just have to put the binding around the edges when I get home and give it to her. I must say it has truly been a labor of love! I hope she can enjoy it for many, many years!

March 16, 2010 – today started out rather normal then about 11 AM Floyd shows up back at the apartment after having left at 7:30 AM to go to work. It seems that the internet server was down and he had many things to get done that required the internet. Sure changed my plans around but it was good. Floyd’s co-worker Joshua and his wife asked us to go out to dinner tonight. This is the individual that just spent a year in the US being trained by Floyd and his co-workers. We went to a Korean restaurant near our apartment. I must confess when they said they were going there I quietly cringed. We had gone to dinner at a Korean restaurant with one of Floyd’s bosses on one of our other trips and I was not enthusiastic about the food. I was able to eat most of it but told Floyd I would not care to go back. Luckily as it turned out, there are 2 Korean restaurants next door to each other and they were taking us to the one we had not gone to. Thank you, thank you, and thank you! We had a fabulous dinner with many new things but nothing that I would call gross, some I took one bite of and went on to something else but nothing bad. Korean kimchi definitely has a unique flavor that you have to acquire a taste for. We had a very enjoyable evening and really appreciated the chance to experience their culture.

March 17, 2010 – Floyd had to go in to work this morning even though the internet server is still down; they say it might not be up until next Monday. He had a meeting with some people from the United States at his office early this morning. He came home again before lunch and we had an enjoyable afternoon together with him working out of the apartment for the rest of the day.

March 18, 2010 – the internet server was back up this morning so Floyd spent the whole day at the office. He has some training meetings he is involved in next week and was finishing preparing for those meetings. I just spent time of the computer and catching up on things.

March 19, 2010 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my brother Dan. Hope he has a great day! He lives in California and I do not get to see him more than once a year if he can make it to Oroville where we visit the rest of the family. We finished the day by “going out to dinner”. Actually I went over to a local Japanese restaurant and ordered Sushi to bring home for dinner. We ate it here and just watched movies for the evening. Very relaxing!

SORRY! THIS IS FROM OUR LAST TRIP OVER, BUT I GUESS BETTER LATE THAN NEVER...ENJOY!

January 2010 – HAPPY NEW YEAR! We started the New Year in Meridian, Idaho furiously getting ready to travel back to Beijing. We had a lovely evening with the kids but did not stay up to see the New Year in. Our journey back on Jan 4th began very early in the morning, as usual. We have to get up at 3:15 AM in order to be packed and ready to leave the house for the airport at 4:30 AM. It was a foggy dreary morning and the drive was a bit slower than usual but we made it in plenty of time. Our plane was on time and we had the first short leg of our trip to San Francisco to make our connection with our flight to Beijing. We had about a 4 hour layover in San Francisco before our flight so we spent the time checking emails, walking and eating breakfast (it was way too early to eat before going to the airport!) As we checked our emails when we got to San Francisco we found that we had gotten one from a friend in Beijing telling us that it was COLD over here and to be sure to bring our long johns! Luckily we had gotten an email from the Beijing branch of our church the day before we left (since they are ahead of us) letting us know that church had been cancelled because of a really bad snow storm so we had already packed lots of warm clothes. This trip is definitely colder than our January trip over last year!

We had the wonderful opportunity to upgrade our tickets to Business Class seating because of the amount of miles we travel each year and got to see “how the other half” flies. WOW is all I can say! The seats were soooo nice, extremely comfortable and reclined like the recliners at home. The meals were also much better with real silverware, glasses and dishes as well as linen napkins. I don’t want to make it sound like I am bragging too much, just let it be known we slept much better than in coach as well as we were not as sore from sitting. I could get spoiled really quickly, but reality must set in…this will not happen very often as we do not always qualify for upgrades. Boo! Hoo!

Our trials started when we arrived at the airport in Beijing. Due to the bad weather (many flights were cancelled the day before from the snow storm) the airport lines were very, very long. Customs usually only takes about 10 minutes or so to clear but the lines were so long and there was a problem with a passenger in the head of our line. Apparently there must have been a problem with his visa as they kept working on him alone for about 15 minutes before they removed him from the line. Then it took us well over a half an hour for us to get to the immigration officer. We were already tired and this really tried our patience. Once through customs we thought things would go smoother only to get to the escalator and look down at the subway stop to take us to the terminal for our baggage…the whole platform was full of people! It took 3 subway cars coming and going to clear out the crowd enough for us to get on. Ugh, more waiting… patience wearing even thinner. So here we were packed in like sardines in the subway car only to have it creep along at about 2 mph instead of a regular pace of probably 20 mph, with stops every so often to wait for the subway car to pass in the other direction… patience wearing even thinner! Wilson, Floyd’s co-worker, called us just as we got off the plane and said he was just then leaving the office to come to the airport, that way he would not have to wait too long. Even with that he still wound up waiting for us for over an hour. Luckily the Chinese people seem to be a patient people! We did finally get to our apartment long after dark, very tired and hungry.

We noticed as we left the airport that the “snow equipment” they have for snow removal here is quite different than we have in the states!!! It consisted of men with shovels dumping snow into the containers they use in the baggage area on one of the carts they use in the airport then taking it a short distance away and dumping it in piles. Very ingenious…and cheap! We forget between trips what it is like on the roads here. For example, we got to an intersection where we had a green light and suddenly cars were turning left from the oncoming traffic and going right in front of us…not just one darting in but a whole line of 5 or 6 cars just kept coming…couldn’t get away with that in the USA.

We had about 6 inches of snow on the ground here and the temperature was about 15 degrees F on our arrival. It was beautiful to see all the snow but the cold kind of cuts through you. We did not leave the apartment that night to go grocery shopping, as we usually do, we made do with the food we had left behind in storage. Within a couple hours we were all unpacked, settled in and ready for bed!!!

A dear friend of ours, Doug Roberts, who we went to High School with in California, lost his wife to cancer just before we got back here to China. We did not find out about it until we arrived. Wished so badly that we could go to the memorial service but it was not possible to make it back from here to be there. Our prayers are with him!

January 7, 2010 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our grandson Max. It is his 5th birthday today. We had spent a bit of time with him before we headed back to China to wish him a happy birthday and give him a gift since we would not be there to celebrate with them.

One day as we walked home from the park, we noticed some of the street maintenance workers had a manhole cover open and were dumping the snow down in it. We really had to laugh at that one. I guess that is a really good way to get rid of it!

About 1 week into trip, they blocked Facebook again this month. Floyd figured out that we could get a special VPN (virtual private network) that would make it so we could access the site blocked by the government here. It was nice once he got it set up. I could get back on Facebook and not miss out!

The weather was bitter cold much of this trip. Floyd and his co-workers walk to where ever they eat lunch and then afterwards they often take a walk around the block. One day when they did that, Floyd said it felt like he had ”frozen eyeballs” when he got back to the office. I checked the temperature to see what it was during his walk. Accuweather said that it was 12 degrees F (-11 degrees C) with 29 mph winds (46 km/h) making the RealFeel at -16 degrees F (-26 degrees C). Floyd said he believed it was that cold.

January 25, 2010 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our grandson Elliot. He turned 4 years old today. We got to talk to him on Skype today and wish him a happy birthday. It is so nice to be able to see the kids on the computer!!!

Just before we returned home, Floyd’s co-worker, Wilson and his wife took us out to dinner to “celebrate” Chinese New Year a little early since we would be back in the States. They took us to a nice restaurant in Beijing, Chinese of course. It was one on those places where you cooked the food at your table. In the middle of the table was a burner with a large pot of seasoned stock boiling in it. You then picked several other items that they brought to the table on platters that you would then put into the boiling stock to cook. Once it was done, then you would pull pieces out and eat them. The waiter would continue to replenish the stock as it boiled down or was consumed as we dished up things from it. We had quite a variety of things at dinner. Some of the things we consumed were: pig brains, duck blood (it had been coagulated in a loaf and then sliced and had the consistency of tofu), lamb, mutton, red sea bass, tofu – 3 kinds, tapioca roots, sea floaters (sea weed - the long tubes with the bulbs on top that the kids pick up at the beach), dragons eye (a type of fruit), dates, cabbage, pork meatballs, mushrooms (much different looking then we are accustomed to), whole garlic cloves and various spices and vegetables. The air in the restaurant was full of the smell of spices. It even permeated our clothes and the next day when we went to the closet to get our coats, it smelled just like the restaurant. It was a very enjoyable evening and about as authentic as you can get. Yes we tried some of everything!

We returned to Idaho on the 29th. It was a very routine flight, but we did not get the luxury of business class going home. It was good to get back home to visit with family.