Our Birthday Staycation

Adam is 30!  WOW!  I didn't think anything of the number 30 until I realized that my husband is now in his 30's.  Not that I think it's old but it sounds soooooo different than being in your 20's. 
So Adam is 30?!?  I still can't believe it.
Anyway...
Our original plan was to take a trip to the beach, however with the unknown amount of work we need to do on the rental before we sell it and the cost that adds up with every new project; we thought it best to save money on a memorial weekend inflated hotel price and stay home.  Adam took off from Thursday to Monday. 
Thursday we spent the afternoon with Adam's parents eating way too much and showing off all the cute things Zack is doing.
Friday we went to the Science Museum in Raleigh and ate lunch downtown. 

In front of the Cree LED display

Zack was not happy I took him away from daddy for a picture.

Saturday we spent the whole day at the pool (minus Z's nap time which was a perfect break from the sun).

We got Z ready for bed dropped him off at his girlfriends house and went to dinner and a movie.  Indian food and MIB 3 in 3D...perfect to celebrate my man.
Sunday we went to church, had lunch with Adam's Chinese coworkers and Adam took them downtown for some sight seeing.
Monday we went to the pool and got some energy out at the mall.
It's Monday night and I am so thankful for the time we have had together.  I am kind of glad that we didn't go away...I mean the packing and preparation, the sleeping in a hotel, the traffic, the laundry pile after.  I know this is a pretty lame way to celebrate such a major milestone but we all had a great time (and when I say all I mean mostly Zack...I don't know what will happen when Daddy isn't here to play all day).

Happy Fathers Day!

Happy Father’s day to my grandpa’s.  I was lucky to have two amazing grandfathers, both very different but the same in ways that mattered.  Until I got older I thought it was normal for my cousins on my mom’s side to call my grandparents on my dad’s side grandma and grandpa.  I thought it was normal to spend all holidays with both sides of the family at the same time and location.  I know my grandparents all became good friends but I am sure the reason they became close was for the grandchildren.  I will never forget the look Grandpa Marum gave every time he saw me (even though he lived down the street), or the fact that he and my grandma moved twice just to be near us; and I will never forget the time Grandpa Dalland made my Tante Janet call me so he could talk to me, or the way he waits for us by the window and then pretends he is annoyed that he no longer has peace and quiet.

Happy Fathers day to my daddy.  My dad made a lot of life changing decisions about his career so that he could be a part of our lives.  Once we moved to NC he worked 6:00 am to 3:00 pm and was home every afternoon.  He coached our teams he was a boy scout leader.  He picked us up when we were sick…well at least until I figured out that I could get him to come when mom wouldn’t and mom caught on to my game and told him he wasn’t allowed to come get me anymore.  My dad would come up to my college just to fix my computer (this is after I asked too many “stupid” questions and the Tech at Elon told me “just to call my daddy”).  My dad met my future husband already trusting that I wouldn’t date a jerk and now he loves Adam as much as he loves me…in fact sometimes I wonder if he likes Adam better.  My dad was proud to walk me down the aisle and he was the most excited of all when he found out he was going to be a grandpa.  When Zachary was born my dad (who types maybe 1 word a min.) sent Zachary a very long e-mail, the sweetest letter I ever read.  My dad has been a great example to me, as a father, a husband and a man.

Happy Fathers Day to my husband.  Adam hasn’t been a father long, but I couldn’t have picked a better man to raise my children with.  Before Z was born Adam was scared about everything, but as soon as he held Z in his arms he stopped worrying about the exact temp. a bottle needs to be.  Adam loves to read to Zachary and since children’s books are my thing I bought a junior chapter book “Robin Hood” that is going to be a Father/Son thing.  Adam read to my belly now he reads to the baby and eventually Z will read it to Adam.  I know as Z gets older that I may have to be the tough one because Adam is mush around the baby; he hates to see him cry or even look like he may cry.  I can’t wait to watch Z grow up and look up to his daddy.

Two Birds…One Stone

…and as someone who is not too fond of birds I am happy to get rid of 2 using only one stone…(mean I know but birds kinda freak me out). 
I DIGRESS…So as I was writing this I had a little déjà vu action going on…than I realized that I actually used a similar title for another blog I wrote and began that entry almost the same way.  Have I really gone full circle…if I didn’t have the baby would I have anything new to say?
 This past weekend we went to Hong Kong for Zack’s doctor’s appointment and turned it into Adam’s birthday trip.  I didn’t feel too bad about jipping Adam on a birthday trip since I let him buy a blue ray disk player for his birthday (when I say that I mean I would have picked out the cheapest lowest grade one because I hate spending money on complicated technology…especially since buying one thing means you have to buy 10 more things to make the first thing work to its full potential and before you buy your 10 new things there is a better, newer cheaper version of the first thing you bought…Ironically we needed to get this blue ray player because we just bought a home server and the only way we can watch downloaded movies and TV shows is through our laptops, so now we need this blue ray player because it has wireless capabilities and can play things from the server onto the TV…I don’t know…I just know that I probably won’t be able to watch TV during the day without calling Adam).
We left Sat. morning for Zack’s 12:00 appointment…we were not too excited about this one because he was getting his first set of immunizations since the ones he got at the hospital right after he was born.  He didn’t cry at all last time, but he screamed when they took blood at his 10 day appointment.  This time they gave him 8 vaccinations in 2 shots and one orally.  I held him on my lap (he likes sitting like a big boy) and held his arms in.  He was taking in the new environment and flirting with the pretty nurses.  He drank the oral medication like a champ and all of a sudden it went from looking around the room to mouth wide open but nothing coming out and whole body turning bright red…this means big scream.  I was able to feed him to calm him down.  Other than that his appointment went well!  He is now 11 lb’s 5 oz (25^th percentile).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!

…and I don’t mean the little one.  Adam is 29 years old today (for those of you that haven’t realized 29 is one away from 30).  For his last year as 20 something we aren’t doing anything as cool as we did last year.  I love Macau but I draw the line at bringing my baby to a casino.  We already had a doctor’s appointment scheduled for Zachary so we are making a weekend of it in Hong Kong.  Today Zack and I are taking Adam some brownies for lunch and we are taking him to dinner.  If all goes as planned this will be our last birthday celebration in China!

Home is Where My Husband Is

I honestly think moving to China was the best thing for us as a married couple, never mind that it is so good for Adam’s career and for my new career as a lifelong learner/homemaker.  Before we left I loved being married and we had such a great time together on our Wine Styles/P.F. Changs date nights.  As much as we miss our family and friends it has really pulled us together not having so many other people involved in our lives.  Before we left we were each stuck in our old lives and marriage wasn’t much different then dating, but now our lives have changed together and we are forced to depend on each other in ways we never had to in our settled lives in NC.  I no longer can call a friend or family member at 3:30 in the afternoon to vent or to celebrate or even just to talk…I mean unless you want me to call you at 3:30 in the morning your time.  I call Adam.  I have my new friends here and they are wonderful and I feel like I have known them forever. Having good friends is important, but not as important as building a relationship with my husband. 

The role of an ex-pat wife is to support her husband through thick and thin.  Adam has had to work late this week to make up for the week and a half off spent in the US and in airports.  This week my job was to not put pressure on him from the home front to be here for dinner, since he was getting pressure on the Cree side to get his work done (which if any of you are familiar with Cree they are a great company but I really don’t think anyone’s work will EVER be finished).  The Independent woman in me doesn’t like to admit that my role here is a supporter, but on the other hand I love that I have grown personally enough to not be leader of my own life. 

This entry is stemmed from my mom asking what it was like coming back to China after being in the US (the land of Target, clean streets, English speaking people, mattresses made with fiber and foam rather than plywood).  I hadn’t thought about it until she asked, but it was really nice to come home (to China).  It was wonderful to see people and to vacation in New York but I missed our little apartment with no hot water in the kitchen and no dryer for our clothes and no English channels on the TV.  Home is no longer defined as familiar it is defined by where Adam and I are living life together.  Even though we were married almost a year before we moved to Huizhou, Huizhou will always be the place where we began

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM

Today Adam turns 28 years old!  Since it’s Monday he had to work…but since I’m Lindsay I brought a cake for Adam and his co-workers to have after lunch (I miss kindergarten).  I took pictures! 

Chinese grocery stores don’t allow for much creativity…or too much creativity (depends on how adventurous you are).  Anyway I used some of the valuable ground beef that I bought in Hong Kong last week to make Hamburgers.  I made some Nachos (using tortilla chips and Mexican cheese bought in Hong Kong).  I used the salsa brought from the states.  China does provide some cheap fresh ingredients!  I made guacamole with fresh avocados and corn on the cob.  For desert we had fresh watermelon cantaloupe ice juice and chocolate cake from the hotel.

Enough about the food…back to the Birthday boy…Adam is working hard and loving every minute of it!  His job here requires a lot more leadership and is able to see the factory from before the beginning.  He is still wonderful and patient and my best friend!  I LOVE YOU!

Adam's POV

Adam is a follower of our blog but (although I have asked) doesn’t want to post anything…so I made him dictate to me what is going on at work.  Thankfully he has had a lot of practice explaining in a way that anyone (me) can understand. 
Although we have had a few issues, we are on track to start production on July 1^st.  When I first moved to the new factory (on April 7^th) they had nothing (no internet, no desk, no food).  Since then things have progressed quickly…construction is almost finished, tools are set up, we are processing wafers and we have built our first LED lamps.  Chinese construction is pretty amazing.  We started construction in January and every day since then there were 500 workers carrying bricks on their backs, and doing the work that Americans do with machines and new equipment, manually.  I have to share an office (that is actually a dorm room) with 6 other guys. By the end of May we will move into the new office building.  On Monday we start our pilot production and hopefully work out any bugs before we start our actual production. 
We have our start up crew (short of one engineer), 178 employees and will be hiring a ton of local people over the next year.  We have a great team of Engineers and we have spent a lot of time outside of work together.  Mostly we do dinner and invite Lindsay but we went to Karaoke one night and did a team building hike.
My wife is wonderful for being supportive of my long hours and allowing me to stay in the dorm one night a week so I can get some extra work done.