Last week was a very long week. Joe left town on Monday and didn’t return until Saturday mid-day. I’m used to him traveling but here lately it seems that he’s away more than he is at home. Things are pretty busy for him right now and I know the year is coming to an end and they are trying to wrap up some things, but I still miss him being home.

I do have things to occupy my time here in Chengdu. I’ve made lots of friends and there is always something going on. Somehow that doesn’t replace the fact that Joe is gone and I miss him. After all, he’s my BEST FRIEND! He left again on Sunday and will be back on Thursday. The thing is that staying in a hotel and being on the road is now growing old for him as well and he’s ready to spend some time at home with me. Yea! Hopefully the next few weeks before we leave for home for the holidays will go by quickly and he can then get some very much needed down time with the family.

I also spent last week saying goodbye to dear new friend. Kay is leaving today for the states and then will settle in Perth, Australia with her husband, Steve. He works for Chevron and has been reassigned to Australia. She has been a good friend to me here in Chengdu and I will miss her dearly. This is the first time I have had to say goodbye to one of my new friends. Most of my other friends (many Chevron wives) are experienced with saying goodbyes because they have been expats for many years, moving from place to place. One thing I know for sure is that it doesn’t get any easier. We spent an afternoon at lunch and then went to a wonderful place for afternoon tea. On Friday we played Mahjiang one last time together and then went to a favorite expat hangout, Peter’s, for Friday Margarita Happy Hour and dinner. One good thing is that Kay’s son lives in Perth and she will be close to family with the new move.

This week will be busy. On Tuesday I start a bible study on the study of Esther with some women here in Chengdu. I’m excited about the study and have heard many good things about it. I will also be attending a baby shower for a young expat wife. It’s good to know that no matter how far you are from home, life still goes on and you can still look forward to familiar things here as well. On Wednesday, it’s the monthly Chengdu International Women's Club luncheon and Chinese lessons. These things make the days go by faster and before I know it, it will be Thursday and Joe will be home.

I’ve worked most of our marriage as well as spent many years at home raising kids and being a mother. Right now is a lot of fun for me because I like feel I’m living the life of the spoiled wife. Like almost all of my friends here, I have a part time house helper that keeps things in order at home. That leaves the days filled with lunches, nail and hair appointments, foot and body massages, facials, teas, game days, shopping, and cultural excursions. These are also the things that keep me from missing Joe when he is away on business.

I am so thankful for the friends I've made here in Chengdu that keep me going and keep me smiling, even on those days when I am really missing Joe and home. They are truly a wonderful support system.

Love you girls!

Love to all, see you soon.

Bright and early Wednesday morning we left for the airport and the final leg of our trip, Melbourne. During the ride back to Cairns airport, we were able to see the beautiful view along the coastline road. It was some of the most breathtaking scenery I had ever seen.

We arrived in Melbourne in the early afternoon and got checked into the hotel. Immediately we could notice the change in temperature. It was a lot cooler in Melbourne than we had experienced in Port Douglas.

We were staying in the Hilton on the South Wharf. It is a new hotel in the convention center district of Melbourne and the area is under a major development along the river. The views from our hotel were beautiful. We decided to walk along the river down to the casino. We spent the evening playing black jack and had dinner at the casino complex.

On Thursday morning we took the tram around the city of Melbourne taking in the city sites. We went to the Queen Victoria Market. It’s a huge outdoor market that has crafts, clothing, gifts, food markets, you name it it’s probably sold here. We had lunch at one of the food courts and then continued our tour around the city. We went to a huge downtown shopping mall. Shopping seems to be a big pastime in Melbourne. Thursday night we went to dinner at a waterfront restaurant and again had some great seafood. We finished up the night back at the black jack tables. Whatever I had won the night before I gave back that night. Easy come, easy go.

Friday morning we decided to rent a car and go to Phillip Island. It is about one and half hours outside of Melbourne and is the site of Penguin Parade. The little penguins, or sometimes called fairy penguins, come out of the sea every night at sunset. It is a protected area and full of burrows and natural places for the penguins to nest and rest.

The drive down to Phillip Island gave us a chance to see the countryside outside of Melbourne. After a while Joe got used to driving on the left and remembering the turn signal was on the right and was able to settle down and enjoy the scenery. Joe says you can always tell when a foreigner is driving in Australia because the windshield wipers are on it’s not raining (windshield wipers on the left). Take away the fact that we were driving on the opposite side of the road, the whole drive reminded us of driving somewhere in Texas or somewhere in the California wine country. There were farms and open land and periodically you would see signs for nearby vineyards.

We spent the remaining afternoon driving around the island, having lunch in a small restaurant in one of the small towns and enjoying the beautiful ocean views. We went out the southernmost point of the island that is called Seal Rock where the seals come in from the sea. It was also interesting while driving around the island to see road signs warning of kangaroos crossing and koalas on the road after dark!

Close to dusk we went to the sanctuary where the penguin parade takes place. We had tickets for a viewing area where you sit on a platform and watch the penguins come up from the sea and they would parade right by you. No cameras of any kind are permitted at this event for the protection of the penguins. Not sure why cameras without flashes or videos bother them but the people’s voices don’t but anyway no cameras. There is lots info on the Internet about the Penguin Parade at Phillip Island and also several videos on You Tube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGdipHSYcGM).

It’s so funny to sit there in anticipation of these little guys coming up out of the water. As the sun sets there are pale lights throughout the beach area that start coming on. As you watch the surf as it gets dark all the sudden there’s a group emerging from the water. They may be in a group of 50 or 100 or groups much smaller but there they come, parading out of the surf onto the beach. They have to cover about 50 or more yards until they get to the brush and grass protection of the land but they are so cute to watch as they come in. They are no more that 12 inches in height and so funny to watch. We were sitting near an area that is well traveled by the penguins each night and it has a slight rise in ground near the platform. You can see them coming in from the surf and then you lose sight of them. All of the sudden there they come over the rise! Sometimes the leaders will stop at the top of the hill and everything seems to stop behind them. They may stay that way for several minutes, seeming to wait for one penguin to continue down the small hill. Then it’s like a dam bursts and here they come parading right by the platform. We were told over 600 penguins had come in the night and over 400 of them came by the viewing platform we were sitting at on that particular night. As we sat there over the 30 minutes we saw several hundred walk by us into the outlying area to burrows and other natural protection. It’s truly a sight to see and we both enjoyed the experience. We were even warned as we left to check under our car in the parking lot because it had been known for some of these little penguins to get as far as the parking lots and some had actually been hit by cars.

We drove back to Melbourne shortly thereafter. No mishaps with kangaroos or koalas in the road along the way. We did, however, have a VERY near miss with either a very large dog or dingo on the road back to Melbourne. It came upon us to fast it was all Joe could do to control the car and avoid hitting the animal. With our small car the animal was as tall as the hood of the car.

Saturday morning we took it easy. Our flight back to Hong Kong was not until 9:55 that night so we had the day to kill. The only other sight we were interested in seeing was about a three-hour drive away so we stayed close to the hotel most of the day. In the afternoon we went back over to the casino for a few hours and had marginal luck at the black jack tables. Then it was off to the airport.

We had the most amazing Australian experience. For the most part we opted not to take organized tours. Many of them were very expensive and required the entire day. We were more interested in getting out into the cities and areas on our own and experiencing things on our own terms. If we had planned our tripped better, knowing what we know now, we would have spent less time in Sydney and Melbourne and opted for more time in Queensland. We will definitely get back to Queensland and rent a car to explore what there is to see in that area of Australia. Many of the things we wanted to see were great distances out from the where we stayed and required more planning and time. Again we could have opted for tours but if we were going to take a whole day we would rather be in a car experiencing the area for ourselves.

All in all I would say this is probably the best, most amazing place I have ever been. Most places we have visited in the past year we would probably go back to, but Australia is someplace I feel we will definitely return before we move back to the states. Australia was a very friendly country. It felt a lot like being home, even if they do drive on the wrong side of the street and have crazy accents. I love their expressions for simple things like “brekky” for breakfast and how they call everyone “mate”.

Good day, mate!

Love to all!

Next stop Melbourne and the end of our journey.

Stay tuned.

Love to all!

I met Joe and started dating him my senior year in high school. Our first date was September 21, 1974. We went to a football game with friends and out to dinner at El Chico. I remember going home that night and telling my mom about this guy that ordered Chicken Fried Steak at El Chico. Unheard of, of course. I mean who DOES that? Shortly after that my mom took him to El Fenix cafeteria and loaded up his plate on all things Mexican and properly introduced him to Mexican food. In the coming months we would also introduce him to red beans and cornbread, fried okra, real southern fried chicken and many more things southern.

From that point on Joe and I were together. I don’t recall any major fights, arguments or break ups for us. We just seemed to belong together. We dated while Joe was attending college at UTA and I was working at my first full time job as a clerk for a Justice of the Peace. We both lived at home and life was great.

In 1976 my parents moved to New Orleans and I moved into my first apartment. I had never lived by myself and it was a whole new experience. Joe was now living in Arlington and in his second year of school. We continued to date and in December 1978 Joe graduated from UTA. He had been doing an internship in a company through school and was offered a full time job.

We became engaged Christmas 1978 and planned a September 1979 wedding. It would be our five-year mark and seemed the best time to get married. We signed the papers for our first house in the summer of 1979. On the weekend of our wedding, September 15, 1979, they broke ground on our first house.

In February 1980 we moved into our first home in Grand Prairie. It would be at this house that we would bring three most amazing children into the world, Paul in 1981, Kelli in 1983 and Jay in 1985. In 1985 I became a full time mom and stayed home with the kids. We lived in that house until 1990. We had some great memories and lots of fun parties in that first home with friends and family.

We moved just down the way into what is still our home today in September 1990. In this home we watched our three young children become the most amazing adults one could wish for. We saw our kids graduate from elementary school, middle school, high school and college in this home. We watched all three kids learn to drive and we became a five-car family. We saw our kids fall in love in this house. We welcomed our first grandchild into this home.

We will always have great memories in this house as well. We had great neighbors and made great memories with them. New Years parties, theme parties, impromptu parties, poker parties, holiday cook-outs, game nights, driveway basketball, bunco. You name it; we probably did it in that neighborhood. For a time we had quite a reputation for being the place to live! We made great friends and life long memories. It seems like so much of who we are as a couple and as a family has centered around the kind of home we have had that was always open to all. I know my kids friends will account for that, just ask one of them.

We were a sports family, particularly baseball. It became our life with two boys in the family. Joe coached, the boys played and Kelli and I followed them wherever they went. We were a baseball family until Jay’s junior year in college when he played his final games. Today Paul is a high school baseball coach, we have another Ylda waiting in the wings to take up the sport and more to come with future grandkids. What a ride it’s been and still promises to be.

Joe has stayed with the same company all these years and is now in his 31st year with a company that has gone through bankruptcy, name changes and buy outs through the years. He has grown with the company and has had many rolls through the years. International business kept him quite busy since the 1990’s and on the road a lot. I felt like a single mom through those years with three active kids. It was through this international business travel that Joe knew he would love to have a foreign assignment some day. I was able to join him on a few trips and also got the bug to see other parts of the world. Opportunities did present themselves but with the kids so active and established we chose not to pursue any until they were grown.

Which brings us to today. Here we are in 2009, thirty years later, empty nesters living in China! When Joe said he wanted a foreign assignment before he retired, I was hoping maybe somewhere in Europe. I do have to say despite my initial reservations, this has been a good move for us. I’m glad we have this opportunity.

Moving away from our families was hard but it has also brought us much closer together. In the course of being together for so long and raising three very active children, we naturally let life come between us and our needs for each other. I wouldn’t change anything through the years because I knew we loved each other. However, anyone with a family knows what comes first and that’s OK. I just thank the Lord for the opportunity Joe and I now have to spend this time together and reconnect in our lives. These years together alone away from family will strengthen our foundation and will help make us the best parents and grandparents to our loved ones when we go home.

We are exploring the world together and experiencing what most people can only dream of doing. Joe has challenged me to do things out of my very SMALL comfort zone and I am eternally grateful for that. He is my best friend and I am so blessed to have him in my life.

I thank God every day for sending me Joe. He is truly the love of my life, my soul mate. When we first met I think most thought we were very different. He came from such a diverse background that he was quite different from anyone me or my family had ever met. He grew up living in various parts of the world because his dad was a civil service employee. He introduced me to the idea of experiencing places far beyond Texas and the U.S. Joe is calm; I am hot headed. I like to think that over the years some of his calmness has rubbed off on me. We have come to think a lot alike on so many levels. I guess that’s what spending years and years together will do, truly make you one.

God has blessed us in our lives together and continues to watch over our marriage. We have gone through some rough times with the loss of both of his parents to cancer that only made us hold on to each other much tighter. We are surrounded by wonderful family and friends. As we continue to grow old together, I hope we will continue to be a living example to our own kids on what a marriage is all about. I hope our kids will see the enduring love we have for each other and see how we treat each other in the name of love. My own parents have been married for almost 60 years and I know how important their example has been in my own marriage. I’m not sure where we will be in a couple of years when our time in China is done but I find comfort in knowing that we will be there together and having the time of our lives.

On this special day, I simply say – I LOVE YOU JOSEPH! Thank you for loving me.

Last of all, thank you God for sending me Joseph John Ylda.

Love to all!

Note: Sorry there aren’t any pictures of us over the years. They are all currently in storage.

Joe and I had our first date on September 21, 1974. Five years later, on September 15, 1979 we were married. We were more interested in becoming homeowners when we got married so we opted for a smaller wedding. We didn’t take a honeymoon and from that point on life took off for us. Through the years we have been able to see some of the world but for the most part big vacations have never been a part of our lives. Three kids and their activities were a large part our lives for many, many years.

Since moving to China, our opportunities to see different parts of the world have opened up tremendously. In the past year, I have actually experienced first hand places I had read about but had never in my mind thought I would get a chance to see first hand.

We departed for Sydney on September 2. Although not as long a flight from Chengdu as from Texas, it still took us almost a day’s travel to get there. From Chengdu we flew to Hong Kong where we had a layover of about 4 hours. At 9:55 PM we left on an over night flight to Sydney. We arrived at Sydney at 7:00 AM the next morning. It actually wasn’t a bad way to travel. By the time we got off the plane and got checked into our hotel we were ready to see Sydney on that first day. Our hotel had a view of the Sydney Harbour, the harbour bridge and a partial view of the Sydney Opera House.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the harbour area and getting to know the area, taking lots of pictures. The day was beautiful and very comfortable compared to the heat we were having in Chengdu. We bought an activity card that got us into a number of sites around the area over the next couple of days. We took a tour of the Sydney Opera House and learned about the major undertaking that was the construction of this world famous site. It is a beautiful place and the views out onto the harbour and the city are amazing.

After the opera house tour we took a jet boat ride. This was a choice made by Joe, one I probably wouldn’t have selected myself. It’s also not something I had actually pictured myself doing but it was only the beginning of crazy things I would find myself doing over the next ten days. It was starting to rain a little, also making things worse. They gave us ponchos to put on over our clothes. We were buckled into this jet boat and away we went into the harbour. By this time, the rain was really coming down.

The purpose of this boat ride was NOT to see the sites of the Sydney Harbour by any means. It was a thrill seeker’s ride and along with the rain it was quickly living up to it’s purpose. We spent the next thirty minutes (although I have to say I thought it was MUCH, MUCH longer) riding the waves and wakes of other vessels in the harbour. Along the way we would also do donuts in the boat just to add a little excitement to the adventure. As I said, this was not my choice of activities at all. I spent the majority of the time holding onto my hood to keep the pelting rain out of my face with one hand and the other hand tightly holding onto the rail for dear life! The driver would make sudden turns and stops along the way, which would send large amounts of water cascading into the boat. So much for the ponchos! By the time we got back to the dock we were drenched, cold and ready for a hot shower. Sorry for no pictures, too wet.

After showering and getting warm, we walked to a steak restaurant and had a great steak dinner. It was good to have a good steak, knowing that the beef we were eating was actually beef of a COW! End of the first day, the start of a great vacation.

On Friday we got up and started a full day of seeing Sydney. We took a ferry ride over to Darling Harbour. It is a very popular place full of activities, shopping, eating, just about anything you can think of. We visited Sydney Wildlife World where we got our first glimpses of kangaroos and koalas. We also saw some of the many species of birds, butterflies and insects of the country at this place. Next we went to the Sydney Aquarium. It was full of exhibits of various fish around the area. We saw an exhibit on the dugong (similar to the manatee). It one of the most gentle, graceful creatures I have ever seen. I think I could have stood in the underwater tank watching these guys all day long. We also visited the shark tank. Now that was another experience altogether. Watching those things swim over you and seeing those teeth was very frightening. We rode the ferry back over to Sydney Harbour and our hotel.

On Friday evening we took a sunset cruise around the harbour that included dinner and a show. It was very relaxing to watch the sunset on the harbour and see the city as it lit up for the night. Dinner and the show were great. We got some amazing pictures of the opera house as a full moon was rising over the harbour.

Saturday morning we walked around the area near Sydney Harbour called The Rocks. It is full of little shops, coffee shops and eateries. It also had a street market going on and we enjoyed a quite morning of walking through the market, seeing some of the hand made crafts. We decided to book a whale watching tour for the afternoon. It was supposed to be one of the best in Sydney with a guaranteed (99% success rate) chance of seeing the whales. Well, I’m sad to report we were in the 1% that did not get to see a whale that day. There were reports of a mother and newborn calf (only hours old) in the area that they were attempting to track and that took up the better part of the tour. By the time they figured out that they were not going to find the mother and calf, they doubled back to try to catch up with other whales in the area. Our luck all we saw were a few dolphins off the sides of the boat, very quick and hard to see if someone didn’t tell you they were around. Very disappointing. We did get a voucher for another day on the boat but we were leaving the next day so our whale watching was a bust.

Saturday night we ate dinner at a harbour side restaurant called Nicks, on Darling Harbour. Great seafood, great atmosphere, great evening. Everything we ate in Sydney was amazing. We definitely were enjoying the food Australia had to offer. Sunday morning we shopped at the street market a little more. We also went into some opal stores. Opals are mined in Australia and just happen to be my birthstone. We found a beautiful pendant for me at one of the shops. It’s called a boulder opal. These beautiful stones are mined with the opal attached to the boulder. They are polished and beautiful in color. There are several kinds of opals in color. Mine has a deep blue/green color. Not anything like the opals you are used to seeing. Happy Birthday/30^th Anniversary to me! Thanks honey!

Stay tuned.

Love to all!