Nov 20th (forgot to post this one...)

Today was our Primary program. We have 3 children in Primary and 2 in nursery. They are all Korean. The primary children gave talks and sang and recited scriptures...in Korean and English. Our Church is made up of the English expatriates (us) and Taiwanese and Koreans. The Koreans don't speak English, but because they are also expatriates(hold passports) they have to come to our branch, as the Taiwanese do. But the Taiwanese also speak Chinese or English and the Koreans can understand Chinese. So the Taiwanese can speak Chinese and the Koreans can understand them. There is always somebody translating in the background during the meetings. It's sort'a confusing.
The Primary has their sharetime as the first part of Primary and it's led my the Primary president and her first counselor (both English,but one speaks Chinese)) and then they have their lesson by Korean teachers, mostly their mothers.And there is a Korean mother in the nursery. The kids are a regular wild bunch.
The Young Women's program only has a president and she also teaches the three girls in Y.M.. They're all 14-16 years old.
The Young Men have a president (Ernie) and one counselor. They have two priests in Y.M. The sacrament prayers are said in Chinese and English. Since our ward is only about 35 people the sacrament is passed really fast!
There is also a Chinese Branch that meets in our building after us. These are native Chinese and we are not allowed to associate with them. It's the rules of the government.
Although there are no missionaries here they have probably been baptized while they were out of the country either U.S. or Hong Kong.
The Church is true , even in China!!
Love Mom

Nov 27th

I got my hair cut last week. Jeanne thinks I'm so brave because I went by myself. Dad left me at the door as the doorman opened it for me. Then a young girl in a black blazer welcomed me. Of course, no one spoke English. So I just smiled and pantomimed a haircut! She took me to the lockers and put away my coat and purse and gave me a key. She was looking very worried and she kept speaking Chinese (sort'a like Dad. He keeps speaking English to people who obviously have no idea what he's saying, but he just keeps on talking) She motioned me to the shampoo room and I nodded. A nice young man shampooed my hair and wrapped it in a towel and led me out to the shop. I was directed to a booth where another young man with scissors and comb started combing my hair. Another guy wrote something in English on his phone, but I have no idea what it said. Then he wrote something about haircut books and I shook my head and pantomimed cutting 1/2 in off of my hair. the guy with the scissors got to work and 20 min. later I was happy. I'll probably go back in a few months. It cost me 30 yuan which is about $4.00
Thursday,Thanksgiving,we spent at the hospital. Dad had to fast all day. His procedure was at 6:30 pm. Both the surgeon and his assistant ( the specialist from out of town) came in and explained everything to us.And afterwards everything was great! They were able to get the stone and blast it without any problems. For my dinner I went to an Italian restaurant across the street from the hospital and ordered take-out pasta with pesto sauce. It was good but not as good as stuffing and cranberry sauce! I get to stay in the room with Dad. There is a love seat with a hide-a-bed. It's twin sized and not long enough, but OK. His meals are enough for both of us to eat off of. We came home Sat. about 3:30pm.
Today was our District Conference at Church. We had representatives from Beijing come down. The Beijing branch has about 250 members.They also have a "Virtual" Branch of about 230 people who live all over China. There might only be one person in a remote city but they all connect by phone to hold their meetings.Our branch has about 35 people in it.
It was a good weekend and now to get ready for my crazy Monday! I have to walk a lot on Mondays. My tailbone still hurts from my fall, but that could last for a couple of weeks.
Love you all !! So glad you could be together for Thanksgiving!! Next year you can cook too!! XXOO

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Dad's out of surgery. It was successful !!! They took out a big stone with more small ones to follow by themselves. Thanks for all of your prayers!!
He'll probably be released Sat. a.m.
Happy Thanksgiving! Love Mom XXOO

Nov. 19th

So it's Saturday.  We can sleep in... No, the door bell rings at 8:30. It's the gas man to collect our payment for the last two months. It's 6.60 yuan...$1.04 U.S.  Of course, all the gas we use is our two-burner cook stove. Not too bad.
Then we got to Skype with Grandpa and Anna and Zack. That was nice.
We then went to a new market place with Jeanne and Nelson. The had everything!  I bought a sweatshirt that fits me for $3.00 US.  I bought one a few weeks ago, but Dad keeps wearing it. That one cost $9.00 US.
 Our apartment isn't cold at all. The government pays for our radiant heat. We have to pay if we turn on the forced air things in the living room and the bedroom. But it was chilly out today. And windy.
I went to the student store around the corner to buy some things.While I was walking over there I was kicking a soccer ball around with some students ( I know I'm too old to do that) And I fell on my backside and hit my head on the pavement! I also bruised my pride:( My tail bone hurts but I think I'll survive. Yeah for Ibuprofin!
After lunch we went to our local market to buy some meat. Where you shop depends on how far you have to walk with your purchases.We discovered that the market stalls are closed after lunch!  We went back at dinner time and bought some meat to last us a few days.
We'll leave Thurs. morning for Beijing and hopefully a successful procedure to "Blast" the wretched kidney stones.!
Love you all!!   Mom XXOO


I honestly don't think I've EVER seen mom "kick around a soccer ball"!  That China, I think it's changing them.     -Melanie 

Nov 16th

As it stands now, we get to stay home in Tianjin this weekend!! But next Thursday, Thanksgiving, Dad will have his procedure done in Beijing. They said the surgeon is the best in China, so I hope that's true. The only drawback is that we both work on Thurs. (China does not celebrate our Thanksgiving) So our classes will have to have substitutes. Dad has to be there at 11:00am and the procedure is at 6:00. He said I could teach and then come up later, but I'm not going to do that. I don't want to travel by myself all that way. And I don't trust him to travel by himself. :)
He might have to spend 2-3 days in the hospital to make sure there's no infection, that means I'll be shopping a lot or else be very bored. Maybe I'll take the computer this time.
I do want to shop at the American market again. It's so expensive, but necessary. Today I ordered some things from an American market here. They're also expensive plus they charge a delivery fee, but they do deliver and that was nice. They even brought a hot pizza that wasn't too bad.I just can't eat like a Chinese all the time!
Last night we had burritos. Dad cooked and I did everything else. We invited Nelson & Jeanne down and they were thrilled! Tonight Dad & I went out to eat at our favorite little Chinese restaurant where no English is spoken. We always get the same waitress and we take our receipt that says what we had last time. Dad loves their sweet and sour shrimp, but tonight we had sweet and sour pork. It wasn't very saucy nor sweet but it was all right. I'm still losing weight .Dad isn't.
Last Saturday we explored a new market place with Nelson and we bought some DVDs. Dad bought the Narnia series,Indiana Jones Series,Madigasgar,Ice Age and High School Musical. They were about $17.00 total,U.S.
This Sat. we're going to explore another local market place with them Shopping shopping shopping!
It's late. We're off Fri. so we can sleep in!! Love you all !! XXOO Mom

Nov 11th

It's 10;00 pm - we just got back from Beijing. We had to wait for 2 hrs. to get a train home. It was busy. We left at 8:00 this morning, got to the hospital about 10:30. they did an x-ray then an ultra sound. no kidney stones showed up.
They let us go for a few hours. We had lunch - pizza (Yum!) and ceasar salad for $8.00 US. Then we went shopping. It was productive, but Dad gets really carried away! Then back to the hospital so that they could take us to another hospital 1/2 hr. away to get blasted. That Dr. did an ultra sound and couldn't find a kidney stone, so he ordered a CAT scan. Oh, there it is! But it's in the urether, where they can't blast it! Before it had been in the urether and then the next time it was in the kidney and now it's moved back down! So back to the first hospital to consult with the urologist. He wants to do a scope and blast the stone from the inside (ouch) , but he doesn't do that another Dr. does and he is only at the hosp. on Wed. and Sat. Can we stay overnight and consult with him No! We're not going to spend money on a hotel to talk to him for 10 min. We told him to have the Dr. look at the CAT scan and call us! Then we went shopping again, got a few more bargins and headed home.
What a day! I did get a nice sweatshirt for $9.00 US. I need something to wear around the house that I can just relax in and stay warm.And of course, Dad bought more things for the boys. If Lori & Kari come to China they'll each have to bring an empty suitcase here!
So Sat. we can rest and clean house. Yipe-e-e-e
Love you all ! Mom XXOO

Nov 9th

Just up sitting and so i thought I would say hi.

I lost contact with a friend from college. I knew he was in Singapore but could not find any e-mail. BYU did not have his correct e-mail. I was looking at our BYU China teachers book and saw that the Palmers spent time in Singapore as
employment missioners. I e-mailed them and they worked with him and gave me his e-mail. He wrote back and we hope to get together in Hong Kong sometime.
If we can afford it, we might go to Singapore and see him and his family.

We went to a student concert last night with our fellow teachers. It was interesting. Was suppose to start at 7pm, did not start till 7:30. Looked and went like a high school program. It was called College musical. First song was Don't Stop Believing, which was the first song I played for my students, so at least 500+ have heard the Journey version of it. It was an interesting show with singers, different types of musical instruments. Relay races with hula hoops and eating dumplings. There were these 2 guys dressed in red and blue type robes. They were very funny as the kids laughed and laughed. It reminded me of 'Who's on First'. These guys were very good and their timing was great. Even though we did not understand anything they said. It was how they acted that was neat. If you have
not seen 'Who's on First' you can watch it on YouTube. I recommend it for anyone who has played softball.

We are off to Beijing, for the last time I hope, they are going to blast the kidney stone. With a little luck we hope to be back the same day. Thought and prayers are always welcomed. It helped with my kidney and light handedness. Everything seems to be back to normal.

Have a good weekend.

Love to you all,
Dad

Nov 6th

Our friend, Jeanne, loves raisin bread. So being the wonderful husband that he is Nelson bought a loaf when he saw some at a bakery. Having things that remind us of home is very comforting. She was excited about his thoughtfulness and decided to make french toast the next morning. She cooked it up and they sat down to eat. It wasn't raisin bread...it was bean bread! But she said, with lots of syrup on it , it wasn't too bad! It was a nice thought! Their bread is good if you get the right kind. I bought some delicious looking dinner rolls that had bean curd in them. It looks like poop, and has a nasty texture. Then I bought some other rolls that looked good and they were already sliced. They had pineapple jam(?) inside. The next day I stuck a piece of ham in one and had it for lunch.
If we buy Chinese items the prices are very cheap..watermelon for $.16 ...fruit and vegetables for under ad dollar. But when you buy American food at the American market you pay through the nose! A bag of

Fritos $5.46
Honey roasted peanuts $4.73
butter $3.56
syrup $3.99
Golden Crisp cereal $3.99
Popcorn 3 pack $5.32
shredded wheat $6.65
Bunches of Oats $6.65

When we go to Beijing we always try to stock up on important things, like Fritos and cereal. But I just found a place in Tianjin that will deliver, and the prices are comparable. That would be better than hauling our suitcase all over Beijing full off food!
Have a good Sunday. We're thinking about you all !! Love Mom

Nov 5th

So we went to Beijing on Friday to see 2 kidney doctors. We left home at 9:00am and got to the hospital at 11:50am The bullet train ride is 30 min., but the traffic in Beijing was Horrible! Plus the taxi driver didn't know where the hospital was. Now I have a map of Beijing with the hospital marked. We'll see if that helps next time. When we came home the Tianjin taxi driver didn't know where the University was either! We just have an address and a little map and we don't speak Chinese! When the taxi picks us up at the station there is a guard there that can direct them, but it's such a hassel. They never take us or bring us back the same way so the cost is always different!
When we got to the hospital - there are three buildings together - we first got an ultra sound that showed that the right stone had grown and there were 2 stones on the left side. Then Dad had blood drawn and then we saw the urologist at 2:00, who sent us to have a CAT scan 'cause that shows a better image than the ultra sound. Then we saw the kidney specialist who said the creatinine test looked good, the kidneys were functioning OK Check back again in a few months Then back to the urologist..The CAT scan showed no stones on the left and just the bigger one on the right. We will go back next Friday and have it blasted!
By this time, 4:30, the traffic is busy so we got to the train station eventually and got a 7:00 train ride home. It's always an exhausting day and it's hard to find food to eat at a reasonable price. I think I'll pack a picnic next Friday.! We also had some time to go to the American mkt. Dad's never been there so he made me go over-budget. Again we came back with our "carry-on" suitcase full and 3 other bags. I feel like a Gypsy, but not as bad as some of the locals look. You can't believe the things they carry on the train!
My last load of laundry is washed so I think I'll hang it up and take a nap. love you !! Mom

P.S. Has anyone read The Shack for their book club? I'm reading it now.

Nov 3rd

Off to Beijing for the day and final trip to the doctors for awhile. I hope.

Thanks for all the thoughts & prayers, they helped.

Dad