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

Technorati Tags: Wizard,Holidays,Ying Yang,Foodie

Technorati Tags: China

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.

Technorati Tags: China

Happy Halloween!!!

xoxo

MJ & J

We are Parents…

of Bunnies!!!

  

Meet Ying and Yang…

Ying is the cute little girl (we think) and Yang is the fun bigger male.  I guess we’ll really find out what Ying is if we start to find other little bunnies…but for now, just her sweet personality screams girl, while Yang is speedy Gonzalez and all over the place!

They are the first (and most certainly not the last ;) to

join our little Hastings family.

Y & Y are hopefully baby dwarf bunnies (our apartment is great…but a little on the small side for BIG bunnies). Cleaning up after them is helping us practice for real parenting positions…and we LOVE them!

 

In other news:

• We’re slowly getting our apartment put together.  We’ve finally figured out where to get the good stuff on the cheap, have a couple of rugs for the living room, found my dream bed set and pillows at silk street in Beijing (that place is worthy of a whole other post!) and are gearing up to paint our wall either a bold red or a bold teal.  We’ve also started decorating for the holidays, which really helps to feel more at home!

Trick or Treat!!!

We’ll see how many kids we get this year! Happy what?!

(I had to dig through the gourd section at the store, but finally found one that somewhat resembled a pumpkin!)

• Cooking.  Good old fashioned American (or anything close to it) cooking is hard to find here.  BUT…we’re also figuring that out…slowly. ;)  We got an oven, so that helps since almost everybody here only fries things on hot plates (blech). After bartering for some imported powdered sugar from the relief society pres. in our branch, I made a batch of home made cinnamon rolls that turned out pretty dang good!

• Work = chaos that is getting better.  We’ve had a crazy busy first month…but I guess that’s what you can expect with a change in management, especially if you’re the new management!  It’s already gotten better though and I feel like the company’s made some real progress.  I have a great team of teachers and love how the Chinese receive our school and our marketing. Here’s a picture of a party we threw for marketing…

• The Chinese love fireworks…we see them every night from our apartment…but we had our own little pyrotechnic show in our apartment this month.  Jordan was lying down with the laptop on his stomach (and more manly parts), got up and less than 2 seconds later…BOOM!!! His battery exploded and started a fire in our room.  I was in the living room and heard this huge bang, looked around the corner and saw flames under the door.  We put it out but it kept exploding like a firework fountain.  Everything but our floor left with a nasty battery acid hole was fine…but I’m pretty sure HP is getting a few phone calls. ;)

These are the charred remains of J’s battery!

• I’ve passed my first language test and it was the same one I took in Brazil…TMI, I know, but you know you are on your way to independence in a country when you can go to the pharmacy and get your birth control!  Sort of sad here though, they didn’t really know what it was and kept trying to hand me the abortion pill. Mmmm…No thank-you.
• My sweet dog, Corkey passed away.  He was the best dog ever (yes, J…even better than Shasta!) and lived to the ripe old age of 18ish.  My mom said he got really sick and started having what seemed like strokes the day that J and I left for China.  I feel like my favorite dog stuck it out one last time for me.  Thanks Corkey.  I still remember picking you out at the pound, growing up with you, you barking at old boyfriends you never liked and our many trips around the block as you pulled Nic and I on the scooter  or our roller blades (you were one buff ten pound pup).  So many good memories and many more to come, as I’m sure my two grandmas upstairs are taking good care of you.  Love you Cork.