This book took me a little longer than normal because life has been crazy. But here are my feelings...not as good as the first, but still definitely worth reading to get to the third. If you fell in love with Sarah Prine in the first, you will continue to enjoy her life's journies and heartache. I am now reading the third...The Star Garden and I am absolute loving it! Read it.

Nǐ Hǎo Part 2 Pictures

Nǐ Hǎo Part 2

Update from China.

Here is a picture of the Canton Fair (the second picture Linley). This is one building and there is 16 of these bad boys. It is so big that there is nothing in the world that I have ever seen that I can compare it to. It blows the new Cowboys stadium out of the water in impressiveness. You gotta love that word. And if you don't believe that it is a word you can see the definitions at the following link: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=impressiveness. So the food still is a kick in the face. We only have two places that we eat at. 1. Pizza Hut and 2. KFC. McDonalds tastes like poop in a hamburger bun and the ketchup may as well be burnt tomato paste. If you go to Pizza Hut there is only two things that you can order, a cheese pizza and one of the 15 spaghetti meals. If you go to KFC you can order the Zinger Chicken Burger and the Popcorn Chicken and Fries (and the ketchup here must come straight from the ole' Midwest because it tastes like a million bucks). Other than those four things we still only eat peanuts and Oats 'N Honey bars. We are down to about 60 Oats 'N Honey bars and 1.25 containters of peanuts left. My 120x180mm American Flag is still hanging just as proudly as ever over my bed (that is about 4x6 inches for those of you that haven't converted to the metric system yet, I'm falling in love with kilometers, meters, liters, etc.)

Things are going well. We still have been waking up between 5:30-6:30 a.m. The first phase of the fair is over and so now we are touring factories and looking at the different products to see who can produce the quantities we need and what things make sense for us to try and import. Yesterday we spent a day with three native Chinese people. It was crazy. We woke up at 5:37 a.m. and got picked up by Aki and Jillian and Anthony. Aki speaks decent english and so she translated for everyone all day. It was so crazy to just be hanging out with three Chinese people that we didn't know at all. They picked us up and drove us to a factory that is about 3 hours from where we are staying (they said 1.5 hours). It was a very long but pleasant day hanging out with these guys. They are so nice and helpful. I couldn't stop asking questions about the Chinese culture and what their lives were like. From their children's school schedules, to what their feelings are on their government, to their favorite foods, to what they like to do for fun, etc. You name it and we talked about it. It is very fascinating to me to see a culture that is so different from ours. Chile was one thing but there was still a lot of similarities to America e.g. they use essentially the same alphabet as we do. You'll see signs in Chile and although you may not know what things say at first you at least can have an idea of what is going on. Not so in China you see this EVERYWHERE....专门为受过大学教育,懂英文单身人士的高质量婚恋交友网站 (note to the reader: I don't have a clue what this says I just found it by googling chinese symbols so if you speak Chinese and this tells you that I hate Chinese people or that I like to hug little boys or something then know that I didn't know). Also most people in Chile are Catholic (or profess to be Catholic) and here most people don't really know anything about God. Anthony had a bronze cow on the dash of his car and I asked him about it and he told us that this was the thing that brought him good luck/fortune. Just a completely different upbringing and thought process. I like hefers don't get me wrong but if you think for 2 seconds that ole' Bessy will bring me good fortune you have been drinking to much Jack Daniels. It was very interesting to talk to them about their culture. We also listened to Nora Jones. He had 14 songs on this CD but 13 of them were so so so so lame that I kept asking every second or third song if we could listen to Nora Jones again. It was a great day and we lived and laughed and loved with these three new friends. Here are a couple pictures of these people and their factory that we toured. They were again so nice and cool. It was one of those days when you realize that although there is a lot of trash in the world there are still a lot of good good people around the world.

Funny story. So Paul has to go number two this morning (with the dietary fiber in these peanuts and Oats 'N Honey bars we could put Activia out of business, if you ever get plugged up go down and pick up some Oats 'N Honey bars and you are good to go) and he finishes up and clogs our toilet. Granted you could clog this toilet by putting a half a gun wrapper in the toilet. It has the weakest flush in the world (kind of like John and Sheree's old house in Houston). So of course they don't have a plunger in our room so Paul has to call the front desk and tell them that we need a plunger. They send the front desk girl Xi up to take a look at what the problem is because they can't understand what he is trying to tell them. She comes up and takes a look in our bathroom. Paul goes in the bathroom with her to show her the problem. I'm just relaxing in the room watching CNN Global and he goes in the bathroom and opens the nasty poop-filled clogged toilet and points at the toilet and then points out in at me like I clogged the toilet. I'm laughing cause I think it is so embarassing that he has to show this girl his poop and little do I know that the whole time she thought it was me. Paul sure pulled the wool over my eyes. Xi looks at me a little different everytime I see her now and I wish there was a page in our "Chinese for Dummies" book that says "Uncle Paul is the one with the nasty poop that clogged our toilet not me."

Love you all. And it wouldn't kill anyone to post a comment or two on my posts. Just cause we don't have children doesn't mean that we don't have feelings. Peace.

My Plan

Many of you know that I have been trying to get pregnant for almost two years now and no such luck. I was writing my cousin an email today, and it got me thinking about what MY PLAN was for Nate and I compared to what has actually happened. Life is funny that way and here is goes.

Get married

Do the deed (sorry, but true)

(If you think that is inappropriate, sorry, but that is a large part in having a baby...hahaha)

Get pregnant

Find out if it is a boy or girl

Get nursery set up

Have baby

Love him/her more than anything in the whole world

But rather it has gone like this…

Got married

Did the deed (sorry Mom)

Didn’t get pregnant

Got nursery set up (Yep, yes I did…)

Bought “Taking Charge of Your Fertility” (Crap)

• Took temperature
• “Knew when I was ovulating”- not really, but the book said I did
• Bought ovulation tests

Went to doctor

• Got blood work done- paid $500

Went to doctor

• Went on Clomid- paid $100

Didn’t get pregnant, felt like crap and gained 10 pounds!

And now I am back at ground zero.

I know lots of people go through much harder things than I have, and I am in no way down playing what people have to endure in order to have a baby, adopt a baby, etc. This is simply my situation.

But the bright side is I have a wonderful job and husband who loves me.

Even though I want nothing else than to be a mom, I finally understand that there is a greater plan for me. Things have fallen into place where if we had a baby, would not be able to work. So I guess I don’t know it all and someone else really does. I know that my Heavenly Father knows my desires and when it is the right time and place, Nate and I will be blessed with a little baby (girl- named Holland). HA! Don’t tell Nate! But I really have come to terms with not having a baby RIGHT NOW. It is no longer the only thing I think about and has taught me a lot about timing and what the Lord really had in store for both Nate and I. Nate use to always say, “Maybe our son is waiting because he needs to go on a mission at a certain time because there are certain people that need to hear the message from him, or maybe our son is going to be a track star and needs to be a year younger than the all star that runs ahead of him…” This really didn’t ever help, but I appreciated the gesture and it made me think about possible things that needed to happen before we were blessed with a baby. I don’t know it all, and I don’t know what will happen tomorrow or in a year or two, but I do know that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and listens to my prayers and even though for a long time those prayers only consisted of having a baby, he has blessed Nate and I with a roof over our heads, each other, great jobs, insurance, money to pay tithing, and two fabulous families who love and care for us and who would do anything for us. Those are my thoughts for today, but I just wanted to share that I am happy and in a good place. Peace and Love.

Nǐ Hǎo

So here I (Nate) find myself in China. I'm going to come right out and say it is chaotic. There is so many people everywhere here going every which way. Every time you get into a taxi you know that your life is about to end. They are crazy drivers and every 100 yards they are swerving so they don't hit people riding their "dump truck bikes" that is the only way to name what these bikes are like. There will be a little 16 year old girl riding a bike with 1 ton of stuff all packed around her. It looks like a little ant carrying a one inch piece of food. And then your driver is swerving all over the road as to not hit her. I guarantee I will come home from this trip with arthritis for clinching the door so hard during these taxi rides. It has a weird smell that we just can't seem to get away from as well? I don't know if the whole country is like this or just Guangzhou (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangzhou if you care to read about where I am).

There are skyscrapers every way you look for as long as you can drive. You can drive and see all the skyscrapers in Utah in about 4 minutes. I have driven for about an hour in every direction and I'm yet to see the end of them. There are so many old and nasty buildings. The pollution is unreal. More people smoke here then you can imagine. They just like to light up the ole Marlboros and puff it up. I was going to post these pictures on our blog but I am being censored. China won't allow people to post on blogs or read blogs here. If they think they can put a muzzle on me they are crazy. I will be emailing Linley pictures and my posts and have her put them up. Here are a couple pictures of our hotel room and pictures from outside of our room.

Things are going well. The fair is like nothing you have ever seen. The complex is 3.3 million sq. ft. and has different manufacturers about every ten sq. ft. You name a product and it is here. We are finding products for our construction company and we have already found some great deals on a couple different products. We went and looked at the consumer electronics and thought about brining in the new LED TV's (they are twice as bright as LCD's and use half the energy and are less than one inch think). We would bring them over until we heard that the minimum purchase order was 1,000. I don't think dropping $1.6 million on 55" TVs would be the best route at this point. I will try to take some pictures of the fair and send them along tomorrow. We have some other ideas up our sleeves to start a TV business. If you would like to put in your thoughts on a name/logo that would be welcomed.

China is a great place but I wouldn't suggest the 25 hour flight to come and check it out. The smog here is unbearable and I have never missed American food like I do right now. Even when I was in Chile they at least would eat things that I had heard of (most of the time) but you go to any place here and you have no chance of eating anything from home. Last night we drove for about an hour after I Googled mexican food to try and find a place to eat. When we got there Paul ordered some Nachos and a Burrito. They served Italian food in the same place and there was no way I was going to order Mexican food after seeing the menu so I went the safe route and ordered a cheese pizza. It didn't taste good by any means but at least it didn't taste like everything else I have seen here. Paul's nachos and burrito didn't look too bad but they basically just took the lasagna sauce and put it on his nachos and stuffed his burrito with lasagna sauce. He wasn't in love with his meal either but at least it wasn't seaweed porridge with fish on top (a breakfast menu item). Good thing I went to Costco and bought 96 Oat and Honey bars and 8 pounds of peanuts before I left. This is our lifeblood and the only guaranteed meal that we get per day.

We are working hard and living it up. China isn't anything that I expected. I thought I was coming home with all sorts of neat gadgets, clothes, and shoes. I have kept my eyes pealed but I'll admit that outside of the fair I haven't seen one item that I wanted. Not even for 10 yen (which is about $1.45). I also would like to let all of you that are stressed that the end of the world is near to sit back and take a deep breath. Keep repenting and preparing yourself but just also be aware that there is a lot of missionary work that still has to be done. I'm calm as a summer's morning now knowing that we have at least a few years left before the end comes.
Our typical day starts at about 5:30 a.m. because we can't sleep past that and it goes until about 8:00 p.m. because we are both so dang tired when we get home and the only channel that we have on TV is CNN global which is the lamest channel I've ever watched so there is nothing else to do once we get home but to read our Book of Mormons and call it a day at about 8:15 p.m. We keep turning on the TV and hoping that things will get better and they will have added another channel. We go through all 35 channels and still only get one that doesn't sound like this, jing dong wo so ni chanza neorsha jing hong long kong. Our Chinese for Dummies books was the biggest waste of $25. It hasn't helped us one time and you should see us trying to communicate here. It is so dang funny.

The moral of the story is we are working hard, laughing hysterically because this place is so bizarre, not eating good at all, our feet hurt because we are standing all day long at the fair, we both get headaches by about 10 a.m. because it takes so much concentration to communicate with EVERYONE, the fair is awesome and the future of America is buying all products from China, we have a plenty of time and a lot of work to do before the Second Coming, China needs to be put in one big washer to clean everything off, then China needs to be put in a huge dryer with a couple Bounce sheets so that the smell can freshen up a little bit, the taxi rides are like living in a real life action film, the people here are so nice and kind, we can't speak a lick of their language and we have no ESPN during the middle of the College Football season. We miss American soil. If you don't think I have an American Flag hanging above my bed right now you are crazy. Most of all we miss and love our families. I'll try to get a few more pictures of the fair and the country. Here are a couple of pictures from our hotel room. Love you all. Peace.

Pictures are down below!

Nǐ Hǎo Pictures

Password Change

Dearest Nate,

Now you cannot change/replace my words, posts, or pictures!
Goodluck trying to figure this password out!
HAHAHAHAHA...I love you!

Sincerely,
Your loving and irritated wife :)

PS. For those of you trying to figure out what the heck is going on...Nate frequently adds and or omits things that I have so dutifully written. So now he can't :)