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.
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.
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