11 Things and a Birthday

First off, some Christmas cheer…brought to you by my now 26 year old brother, Nic.

Happy Birthday Nic!!!

Tonight I was introduced to the Reverb10 site. They give you a daily prompt to reflect on during the month of December. In return, you write about your experiences from 2010 and what you would like to make happen in 2011. I love it.

BUT…I’m not so hot at the whole daily blog thing, and uh… it's already the 17th.. whoops! I do, however, want to chime in when I can, especially on the ones I feel I need to do (or, ok,ok…the easier ones).

This was the prompt from December 11:

What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life? (Author: Sam Davidson)

11 Things I don't need in 2011

1. Regret. Nothing too big here, you’re just reading about an indecisive person. I don’t need to hang on to regret in 2011 or live a life with new regrets…just decide and conquer! I think many of us look back and think “what if'?” It could be anything from what happened years ago to what we just ordered for lunch. No looking back, just keep on keeping on and make the best of it!

2. Impatience. Mmmhmmm. I think that will be something on my list of no-needs EVERY year. I think a lifetime of practicing patience just might be enough. Maybe.

3. Late nights. I am horrible. My husband is awesome. I will often try to go to bed with J, only to get up out of bed 15 minutes later. No more late nights. A 10:30 bed time sounds doable...but why is it so hard to keep?!

4. Stress. Obviously. Who needs stress? Let’s cut that out. I need to do what I can can and let the rest handle itself. Life always presents us with a certain amount of inevitable stress…but we usually double it just by thinking about it!

5. To compare. I don’t think I’ve made it a day in my life without comparing my life or my things to someone else's. Plus, Mr.. Internet here doesn’t help. He’s constantly stuffing us with things to compare ourselves/our kids (or lack thereof..sad)/our husbands/our houses/our shoes to. I must stop comparing, and start owning what makes me, me.

*cough*

Hi. My name is Miranda-Jayne. I have white hair, don’t have cute kids yet and work way too many hours each week. I haven’t lived in one house long enough to decorate as a newlywed and that drives me nuts. My neighbors probably think I’m nuts…and really loud. I can't afford to shop at Anthropologie, and probably wouldn’t if I was rich anyways...unless they had a killer sale. I don't know how to make my eyes “smoky,” use a straight iron to make curls or make a batch of cookies without eating the dough to save my life. I frequently walk out of the room and leave the refrigerator door open and sometimes I don’t wash my hair for a number of days and call it “conditioning,” when really I just want to sleep in for half an hour. And that's me. Some things I like and some things I’d change. But at the end of the day it’s still me.
There’s a start.

6. A tiny kitchen. Did ya see how I did that? I worked something into this list that I DO need, because I really don't need (or want) my tiny kitchen. Sneaky…sneaky!

7. A house. Turns out I’m already regretting #6! I really don’t need a house…we have everything we need. I would just like to live in the same living space long enough to put some of my own spice on it.

8. To hate the gym. Really, I’m an exercise science major…that should be my hog heaven. But, I still manage to find something…anything better to do with my time. It’s not out of total laziness, there’s just something about a gym that screams stinky funk prison.

9. Junk. First of all, where does it all come from?? Secondly, why do I think my life won’t be complete without it? Last week I couldn’t retire my favorite wrap sweater that was stained and balled up after too much wear…so I tried to repurpose it into a bathrobe (which ironically is what J said it looked like in the first place). It’s staring at me right now asking me to throw it away. I think I will tonight.

10. Wonder Woman Skills. Do I want them? Heck yes. Does it seem like everyone and their mom (especially my mom, haha) has ALL of them? Yeppers. Does it drive me crazy that I can’t even work on half of these skills as a semi-newlywed/person who should be getting the hang of this domestic goddess stuff over here (you try shopping for ingredients or buying any sort of craft thing…I was thrilled last week because I found scotch tape…nothing too glitzy…just plain old scotch tape that didn’t even have a dispenser;)? Yes.
I’m sure skills will come with time. And if they don’t, acceptance of things I just have no talent for will. Hopefully.

10. Facebook. Sure, it can be good for the occasional birthday reminder or high school reconnection…but do I really NEED to check facebook everyday? Nope. I think I could still reap FB benefits by checking it about once a week....now that I've just refreshed my FB page.

11. American Everything. It’s easy to become enamored with everything “normal” when not much around you is. I smell good pizza…I’m drooling. I hear English…I’m all ears. I need to suck it up and not be stuck like glue to anything that reminds me of home. We chose to live here so what should we expect? I should be able to go out on a limb more for things like food, customs, etc. Besides, I’m the weird one here!

Well those are my 11 No-Needs for 2011…I’ll tell you how they’ve changed my life next year. ;) Now it’s your turn to play along!

11 Things YOU don't need in 2011.....ready? Go!

Christmas Wish Lists...

In the Hastings house, we’ve been doing our wish lists lately. Needless to say, I was pretty amused with Jordan’s.

If you didn't know Jordan, would you have guessed this was a wish list for an almost 28 year old?! Looks like I have a Peter Pan on my hands!

Since gifts for others have been on the mind lately, I thought a little bit about what I would get people in my family if money and time didn’t matter.

Here are some things that came to mind:

Mom

If you’ve seen pictures of our wedding, you would know that the person that did the flowers was VERY talented…and if you knew anything about my family you would know that my mom did them…yep, she’s pretty much amazing! So, I would like to get my mom her own floral refrigerator and work counters so she could have everything she needs to keep doing flowers for events from our very own home.

Dad

My Dad has always been a great provider for my family, and a very unselfish one at that. He usually gets the nice cars and lets the rest of us drive them, leaving the older “cancer vans” or “bishop’s cars” to himself. I think it’s hard for him to let go of the old car’s “character”. Anyhow, I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to let the old cars go on their last legs if he had either one of these to come home to.

or

Why a crane with the 350Z, you ask? Well, I would have the crane installed in our driveway to help him get in or out in a few years when his knees say bon voyage… ;)

Mom, Dad & Mom-in-law

Jordan and I love the chance to live abroad…but let’s cut to the chase…being away from home is soooo hard. Can you imagine how hard it must be for parents to not live near their children and grandchildren? Well, both of our parents have kids and grandkids far away. I would love if they could have unlimited flights to come visit us and our siblings as much as they wanted to!

Nate & Jen

I would love to get Nate and Jen regular tour tickets to see The Dave Matthew’s Band (they are SO SO good live) and Celine Dion. I think a private concert featuring Dave Matthews, Tim Reynolds and Celine herself would send them both to tears…let’s make that happen!

Jon and Kim

Their cute family LOVES going to Disneyland and has enjoyed an annual passport before…I’m sure this would be a great fit for them EVERY year!

Nic & Tammy

Nic got a big raft as a gift one year when we were younger. I remember taking it out into the ocean and getting tossed! So…since Nic seems to love all things that float and has been on a couple of cruises before…I think an annual family cruise would be sweet. Besides, who wouldn’t like a cruise? I would also get them a lifetime prescription to the Discovery Channel…Bear Grylls 365.

So family, if I’m ever ridiculously rich…expect these gifts to come your way!

What's on YOUR list this year?

xoxo,

MJ

Shortest Calling Ever…

No, I’m not talking about being called to be the Nursery leader, I’m talking about my first calling here in Tianjin. :)

Last month I was called to be the ward activities chairman, only to find that my calling was cancelled entirely at the worldwide leadership meeting for our church just two weeks later! Nobody in our branch knew, as we don’t get the recordings of the broadcasts for a couple of weeks…but my Dad called and told me. I was happy to receive the calling, but also fine to have it taken away, as part of our job at work is to have parties every other week…literally. The Lord knows better than I do! But boy did I have fun teasing the President of our Branch the next Sunday!

To fulfill my two week duties, I threw the Thanksgiving Party with the wonderful help of the rest of the branch. We had about 50 people in attendance, a traditional assortment of T-Day food, some great Korean food by our Korean members, a short play about Squanto put on by my teachers and I, seasonally fresh centerpieces and a little bit of holiday singing to end the night. It was fun to feel at home and celebrate our Western traditions at Thanksgiving!

Here’s a few pictures of our church building (we actually have church in a house the church rents).

We had to be creative and sit people in different levels throughout our “chapel” in the living room (as seen above) and other rooms/levels in the house.

There also aren’t any tablecloths in China and it’s not like you can just stop by your local craft store or Costco and decorate for these kinds of things here…so I relied on some cardstock in fall colors to act as placemats and made some centerpieces after a quick trip to my favorite cheap flower mart.

I think it turned out great, and even though I know I’ll never have that calling again…I wouldn’t mind an excuse like that to throw another party!

xoxo,

MJ

Our First Year Anniversary in 蓟县!

I would have to say that this year’s anniversary has been my favorite yet! ;)

Since we’ve had a tight financial month, we decided to go somewhere instead of do the whole gift thing…going and doing things are usually the best memories anyways.

We decided to go see The Great Wall (Huangyaguan) in Ji Xian 蓟县. Some friends told us about it, so with a couple of Chinese characters on a piece of paper in hand, we ventured off at 6:30 am (people who know me have to be impressed by that ;). We raced to board an extremely crowded train.

Now in China, ticket offices don’t stop selling tickets just because the seats are sold out. Oh no. There is no such thing as a maximum capacity in China. You just have to stand there and hope for a few inches of real estate in front of your face so you can breath your own air.

This is a picture of the train after a bunch of people got off…and it’s still packed!

Somehow, we managed to score a seat for the second half of the three hour ride. There we met a few college kids who helped us with directions and got us a good deal on a ride up to mountains where we would find our section of the wall. I think being a foreigner can have its benefits at times!

I can still remember our funny little ride up to the mountains. There were 8 of us in a van no wider than a volkswagen golf. We dropped everybody else off in these qauint little mountain villages. These villages really reminded me of Latin America for some reason. Small, mismatched houses with cute scruffy muts running around in the streets…and most people were hard at work preparing for winter by cutting and various fruits and corn and throwing them on their roofs to dry. Then, amidst the curves and pretty trees, we began to see parts of the wall peek out of the mountains. We were so excited, the driver got a kick out of us!

This is a view from the parking lot at the wall. It was so high and magnificent! The high peaks on the right of the picture above kept reminding me of the mountains backing the beach in Rio… Don’t you think they look similar?!

(Here is a greener picture compliments of Google. Sadly, I don’t have too many pictures of the trip, as I accidentally forgot to charge the camera the night before! Oops!)

The first thing we wanted to do was get on that wall! We did and hiked to the top of the more touristy section…but we wanted to see the un-restored sections of the wall…so we kept going…and going…and going. At times, things got pretty steep. I’m not going to lie, Jordan had to do some serious coaxing to help me with my fear of heights on parts. He kept saying “I think I see another tower right above us ahead!” Who can resist seeing an untouched piece of world history? Sure enough, they were there…and they kept getting more and more deteriorated. It was so neat, as one looked as though a canon had come right against it and blown half of the roof to smithereens… in fact, that’s probably just what happened! You could usually get inside the towers, but this one in particular had no doors or windows. So, Jordan decided to do a little rock climbing and conquer that thing. I decided to watch/assist from the ground. ;)

That’s my man!

After this tower, we went straight up for another couple of runs. We were off the wall and just on some trail for quite some time until we were on the very top of the mountain (it was quite the ascent!) We began to walk on this narrow ridge. There were parts of it that were only a foot and a half wide, then there would be a twenty foot drop off to a ridge with another huge drop for the rest of the mountain. Jordan, like his typical mountain goat self, practically ran across this section, found a nice seat on some huge rocks at the end and took a seat. He took out an apple and told me to come across so we could eat our apples together. What a tease! I was ridiculously scared and tried to hug the earth on all fours to get across. But then I turned around and saw it…below us was the whole mountain range, painted with the great wall as far as the eye could see. (I’m going to paint this for you, as I sadly don’t have a picture of this…but that’s ok, I was left to enjoy instead of worrying about a camera). To our right was the tiny village that now looked even tinier followed by a sparkly lake behind it. Down to our right was this little colorful temple. We hadn’t seen it the whole way up, and there was no viewable road to get there, but somebody happy and religious lived there and enjoyed a great sight! Directly below us and jutting back and forth all over the mountains was the rest of the Great Wall. Then we realized…WE WERE SITTING ON THE GREAT WALL! The part we were sitting on and the very narrow ridges we walked across were part of the deteriorating wall! How I wish I had a picture from the top…but I guess this means we’ll just have to go back!

While we were there we talked about the great things that happened a year before when we were married and sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. Then, as we were reminiscing about that special day, we thought how hilarious life is… we would have never guessed 1 year ago that we would be sitting on The Great Wall of China for our first anniversary!!! We’ve had a really fun year living on three different continents. I don’t know how and if we’ll ever top it…but I do know that our first year of marriage has kind of been like our hike up the Great Wall:

We were really excited to start our married lives together... learned an unimaginable amount about each other, cultures and life in general... we encountered steep times where we had to rely on each other to get through... had fun... enjoyed the view... and would do it all over again as long as we had each other.

I think that’s how LIFE should be.

You work hard. You play hard. You enjoy the views.

When Jordan and I get to see our ultimate views on the other side of heaven I want us to be able to look back and say “MAN, WHAT A RIDE!” That’s the goal.

Thanks for being my “partner in adventure” for the last year, Jordan.

It’s been quite the ride!

xoxo,

MJ

Temple Blessings…

I am so grateful for so many of the things that I have been given in my life, but right now I am particularly grateful for the blessings I receive from the temple.

You see, today is a very special day…

one year ago today I went to the temple.

After singing “I love to see the temple, I’m going there someday” for so many years…

and I’m SO glad that I went.

Because of this special day and the covenants I made then and when Jordan and I were sealed almost a year ago, I have the opportunity to have my family around…sealed to me…forever.

Can anyone fathom any one thing that would make you more happy than to know that no matter what, you could have your family forever…for eternity?

I can’t.

I’m also grateful for the stunning sanctuaries they are…

and the fact that we have them all over the world.

It was so nice to have so many so close in the states…

then we were lucky enough to have one in Campinas, Brazil…

…and one day soon we hope to make it to the Hong Kong temple. Once you see the blessings, it’s hard to be away for too long.

Let’s go the temple sometime soon, OK?

I can’t wait.

xoxo,

MJ

If you have questions about the temple, feel free to ask me or check out these sites: http://lds.org/temples/home/0,11273,1896-1,00.html

http://www.mormon.org/

We’re Famous!!!

…well, only in Brazil I guess!

But, if you happen to be in Brazil and read any of their business magazines, you will see this…

xoxo

MJ & J

Over the Weekend…

This weekend we…

finally got our heat lamp in our Bathroom fixed.  I guess I sound pretty high-maintenance complaining about a bathroom in a foreign country without a heat lamp.  In Brazil, our bathroom was sort of like a camp ground bathroom.  It didn’t even have a sink or a mirror!  Needless to say, I’m SO glad we have one here…because it is FREEZ-ING!!!

Then, on Saturday, we went to this store called the Metro.  It’s basically like a Chinese Costco and has quite a bit of expat stuff.  We’re in love.

Most stores and markets here don’t have bags and you usually have to buy them for a low price.  BUT, this place didn’t have any plastic ones to buy!  So, we had a whole cart full, piled it piece by piece into a taxi, then unloaded it into a shopping cart that was luckily by the gate guard.  So, we pretty much just did it white trash style.  Gotta love it.

Then, we made pizza…the homemade variety, which was……OK.  The crust was awesome, but we’re definitely going to have to improve the sauce and get some semi-alright cheese. But, it was a first!

After, we went bowling…and J won BOTH games with his sweet skills.  I, on the other hand, didn’t break 100 either time.  BUT, I did get two whole strikes and didn’t jump lanes with the ball like I used to. Remember that, Jon and Nic?!

 

This weekend, we also went to a market to see what Tianjin’s flower market has in store for our Thanksgiving centerpieces. 

However, we were taken by a Chinese friend to an outdoor food market because she thought we wanted FLOUR, not FLOWER.  Pretty funny after 30 minutes of wondering where the flowers were!  Even though we were at the wrong place, it was wonderful! Colorful produce, barrels of grains and rice and of course, the meat department.

When we made it to the real flower market, I was amazed…my Mom’s going to love this place when she comes! We only had time for about 4 stores…but I could have stayed there all day. Next weekend…flower market date!

After, we enjoyed the best lasagna I’ve had in another country at a ward member’s house.  YUM! 

Today  is also Carson’s birthday!  Happy Birthday big man!  You are a great nephew!

So, how was your weekend?  We want to hear all about what’s going on at home. But your weekend isn’t over yet…you’ll still be in the middle of your weekend when we have to get up to start the work week tomorrow!  Dang.

xoxo,

MJ & J

Over the Weekend…

Over the weekend we threw our second big party for Wizard as part of our increased marketing efforts…but this one was for Halloween, so I’m pretty sure it was as much fun for the Westerners as anybody else!  There’s something about being in another country that makes you appreciate any little tradition from home you can get your hands on.

I Love this little guy’s face with his first jack-o-lantern experience! 

So these next few holiday parties will be extra special…a little more work… but a lot more fun!

And, guess what callings I received in our little branch on Sunday?

Enrichment Leader…

&

Activities Director.

I guess I’m a professional party person now…or at least I’ll have to pretend to be for the next couple of months. Wish me luck…sanity…and maybe shoot a couple of time saving, cute tips my way! Thanks in advance, Mom. ;)

PLUS

Last weekend we discovered that you CAN wash bunnies…

but they definitely won’t like it.

 

And that if you go to any of the big parks on a sunny Saturday afternoon you’ll find a bunch of Asians flying kites…

and they’re fun to watch…and extra interesting if this guy whips out his 300 foot kite (the kite itself was that long…not the string) and gets tangled with a bunch of other kites.

But it is a beautiful thing when he gets his dragons to “dance” next to each other.

We also found out that there is even more stuff to do near our house than we thought.  Now we just need the time to go and do it!

For instance, we went to this great place called Ancient Traditions Street.  Tourist Trap?  I think so… But I found out what I want made for myself…

and Jordan found what he wants to take home.  Christmas is right around the corner, honey… I know you were pretty excited. ;)

 

Then, we came home and I tried my hand at my first Navajo Taco meal.  It included 2 days of soaking beans and an hour and a half to prep the rest of the meal (I’m not THAT kitchen retarded…but you do have to get creative without some of your normal modern kitchen amenities and take extra care with produce!).  In the end, they were well worth it.  Jordan is still raving about them and I felt the most satisfied after dinner than any other meal out of the country. 

During the rest of the weekend we enjoyed seeing what’s new with family over Skype dates, going to church, catching up on “The Office” and having a hilarious dinner with some of the people from our ward.

I love weekends.

 

Let’s have a weekend again soon, alright?

 

Tell me about your weekend.

 

Miss you all,

MJ & J

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China…

Miranda has suggested I write a bit for quite some time. It has been another great Sabbath and I guess I just felt up to it today. China is quite the place. I have moved countries enough to know to expect what you don’t expect and when you get the unexpected it’s not such a surprise. I expected China to be much more China-ey. You know, lots of crazy ancient Chinese architecture, with stone buildings and upturned roof tips. Tianjin is very modern. Once in a while you can find an old temple(mostly for tourism) or other building with a Chinese flare, but mostly, the city is modern apartment/business buildings with modern lines, beveled edges, or glass balconies. There are some really cool buildings to look at. We live right in the heart of it all, on the 15 floor of a 25 story edifice. We share our location with 6 other buildings the same height. Below there is a pretty cool little gathering area with trees and water features. In the morning when Miranda and I head out on our 10 minute walk to work, there is often a group of parents and grand parents with their children all around the ages of 2,3 or 4 years old. It is good to start out the day walking by the kids each morning. I guess they like to get a bit of social interaction as most of them don’t have brothers or sisters, and will probably have a full time job when they turn 5. Because most people only have one child, there is a lot of time, energy and money spent as an investment for their future. Not too surprising I guess. Well, as it turns out, children around here are expected to work very hard in their school and other disciplines. The bonus is that on the other hand they get a lot of toys and attention.

The traffic around here is great. If you ever come to China, do it with a sense of adventure as well as a sense of humor. The intersections are often just clumps of traffic trying to push through each other. The name of the game seems to be never back down, if your not sure honk, and there is always enough room to fit between two cars. The problem with the never back down part, is when two cars need to get out of each other’s way to proceed the opposite direction, they will often just sit it out and make the other person move first. Cut and paste that mindset onto two parties and you can have some pretty funny Chinese showdowns. I have seen a few traffic jams waiting on two cars having an intersection duel with neither willing to move out of the way. Honestly, one was about 10 minutes. They have these little red motorcycle trikes that have been covered in the back to create a little passenger cockpit. After coming out of wall-mart with arms full of groceries we decided to take one the short distance home. We weren't disappointed. Miranda laughed the whole way home. It was like we were in high speed chase, only we were barely able to go 20 miles an hour, because in China the road is there for everybody. None of this your side my side stuff. We flew in front of busses, down one way streets(the wrong way) and everywhere else we could get in the way before making it home. Our driver kept looking back wondering why we were laughing so much. Probably thought we were making fun of him or something.

Like anything worth doing in life, there are sacrifices that have to be made to pay for the experience, money or whatever the gain may be. Most of the time being here in China, or when we were in Brazil, presented a fun experience each day. Something to laugh about, roll your eyes and think only in China. The experience here is different enough to learn new and exciting things each day. Sometimes though, you just wish you could smell home. For me it is the desert sage, after a summer rain, for Miranda probably the ocean breeze. Feel the air.  Be around the people that bring you the most happiness. All the things you don’t think about, yet subconsciously classify as “normality”. I have come to realize, since living so much out of country lately, that I am quite a mountain boy. This next part gets kind of weird for me… but who cares I guess. Right now its just me,the bunnies, and my wife. Tucked away in an apartment nook thousands of miles away. I miss the spirit of the earth. I have always been close to it without really knowing what I was enjoying. I ll try to explain. In Hurricane I was only a few feet away from gardens, trees or grass. I could walk bare foot in a plowed field. I could go outside and pick something to eat. Anybody who knows me knows I did all summer. I could see so far away and there was usually something to see. The rain clouds building up on pinevalley, the sun setting on timbertop. There were always birds, or chickens or some kind of animal around the house as well. On weekends I was often in the mountains, carving trails, or building ponds, fishing, hunting, camping, fourwheeling or whatever. I was(am) always a messy kid, in the mud and dirt, throwing something or building something.In contrast, in Brazil and here in China I walk to work on hard pavement all the way. My view is limited to the big buildings nearby. I am inside working, calling or typing without even knowing if it is cloudy or sunny. Sometimes I come out of the work “zone” to find it rained really hard! I didn’t even know! The disconnect seems to be really big right now between myself and everything natural, or living. Cement, metal, plastic and all the other technological barriers have got me on another planet! The weird part is when I get to thinking about this I just want to go hug a tree. Or at least climb it! Or go to a mountain stream and drink until I can’t move. Or lay in a huge pile of fall leaves. Maybe lay down in the grass and get grass stains. I make myself laugh when I think about this. Anyway, with fall in full bloom I think about this stuff a lot. I love fall. If I ever blog again I ll talk more about China. So, I have been looking everywhere for house plants. We haven’t really found any yet. I bought a couple of bunnies and they have been fun. I have had this crazy green thumb thing attack me, and without the possibility of planting anything in a yard, I finally through some beans in a paper cup and started…well I’m not sure. But it is growing and I smile when I see it. Here’s a picture.

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