What a Wonderful Life

Year 21 I graduated from college and got my first REAL job…my dream job.  Year 22 I bought a house.  Year 23 I met the love of my life.  Year 24 we got engaged.  Year 25 we got married.  Year 26 we moved to China.  And that is just the past few years!  I am amazed at how much has happened and at how totally blessed I have been.  I still feel like a teenager, I should be living with my parents, it was all a dream…did I really already attend and graduate from college?  Did I really already get married?  Do I really live in China?  It is all surreal.  I can’t be old enough for any of this!  Is this what life is like for everyone?  My life is too good to be true, and now I get to experience another year where something wonderful and life changing will happen.  I am so excited for what is in store for year 27.  All I know is I have a lot to look forward to…and I am not just talking about my birthday trip to Disney Hong Kong!

11 Weeks

this is beyond my normal pooch...

I felt really good this past week until Thursday then it was all downhill.  I have lost more weight but I have done a lot of research and some women have lost 15 lb’s the first trimester, are sick throughout the whole pregnancy and have perfectly healthy babies.  I try to make up for my lack of appetite by eating more when I am hungry.  I am mostly healthy things and I pretty much am nibbling on dry cereal or an apple all day long.  The funny thing is the change in my nausea has nothing to do with food, but brushing my teeth totally makes me gag and then dry heave (in the morning…since I have nothing to throw up).  It takes me a while to recover from that in the morning. 

On another note, I turn 27 tomorrow…late twenties here I come!  I will also get to go to Disney this weekend.  I am predicting that I will require lots of frozen juice drinks and breaks like at the Expo, but the Hong Kong Disney doesn’t have as many rides as it has shows and special events so I will still have a wonderful time.  I am planning on forcing Adam to ride Space Mountain since I can’t (it will be his first time to a Disney park).  And today is our engagement anniversary.

We celebrated our engagement anniversary and had my birthday dinner this past weekend (our amazing date night with Mexican food and donuts).  What I didn’t share in my date night blog was that we bought our first baby things (other than the Shanghai t-shirt).  We bought a crib mattress and a changing table mat.  I wanted to get these first so we could a) spread out the expenses, and b) see if it would be cost effective to have some furniture made.  I know a lady whose brother makes American style furniture and can make anything from a picture.  I printed out pictures of high end cribs and changing stations and checked prices on Target furniture…if I can get stuff made for the price of what we would pay at Target if we were living in the states I will go for it…if not I can just get a simple something from IKEA that we probably wouldn’t bother bringing back with us.

****Cool Week 11 Fact: My little baby no longer has webbed feet and hands…it has itty bitty fingers and toes!

New golf clubs, hard to find DVD’s, a box of donuts, and leftover Mexican food…

Can you really think of a better way to come home from a date night!  Adam and I ordered Golf Clubs from my favorite “copy” shopping area a few weeks ago and I didn’t want to be the one to decide if they were good or not before I brought them home, so I planned a day for us in Shenzhen.  Our golf clubs were perfect!  Adam was almost giddy when he saw them.  After a quick examination he couldn’t find a difference between them and the golf clubs we looked at in an actual Callaway store.  ***After we returned home we did a quick search on the computer and found the value of one set of our clubs and a bag would cost over $1400…we paid about $180 per set.  Merry early Christmas to us!!!!!  Then we went to IKEA where we ate a meatball lunch and picked up a few things…it was really about the meatballs.
After IKEA we went to a place I found online called Shenzhen Sea World.  I had no idea what it would be like although I knew it wasn’t like any sea world I had been to, I just knew there were tons of restaurants in the area (Italian, Thai, Mexican, American, Seafood).  It was a big square with tons of little craft stands set up selling jewelry, wooden toys, and of course DVD’s.  At the end of the square was a huge ship sitting on the land, it had been converted into a hotel and a few restaurants.  We walked around a bit before going to dinner at the Mexican place.  BTW…there were actual Mexicans running the restaurant, I can honestly say we haven’t seen any Mexicans since we left the States in June…it really is amazing what you miss.  It was early for dinner and we had a big late lunch so we ended up taking a lot home with us.  We couldn’t leave without picking up Sunday breakfast from Dunkin Donuts…yeah that’s right DUNKIN DONUTS!  It only takes about 2 hours to get there so we plan on going back…a lot!

September 11, 2001

It’s hard to believe that it has been 9 years already.  Some people lost family members, some became hero’s, some lost jobs, some lost hope, some lost confidence, some went to bed that night not feeling safe for the first time.  I remember 9.11 a lot differently than most people.  I was a freshman at Elon coming home from my 8:00 class, my only plan was to get back to bed.  My roommate had the news on and told me about the planes crashing as soon as I got in the door.  Both my roommate and I had family members who were pilots (her father, my uncle) and they weren’t giving information about the planes.  I called my mom expecting her to turn on the TV, watch it with me and tell me everything was going to be OK.  See my mom LOVED NY City, she grew up near the city, she worked in the city as a young woman, she is a big time Yankee fan and her ring tone is “Start Spreadin’ the News”.  I figured she may know people who worked in the WTC or be worried about terrorism or even be upset that the city she loved would never be the same.  My mom kind of blew me off on the phone (she hadn’t seen the news) and told me that she had to go because she had a doctor’s appointment and she needed to run errands.  To be honest I don’t know that I ever told her this but I was really annoyed at her reaction.  I later found out that her doctor’s appointment was the appointment where she got her Parkinsons diagnosis.

My mom is a strong lady (the strongest I know) and she stayed strong on 9.11, the day the status of her health changed, the day terrorists invaded our wonderful country, the day people crashed into her city, the day my dad (an airline mechanic) wasn’t sure if he would have a job.  She didn’t tell people (other than my dad) about her diagnosis until later on.  Scott and I were some of the first to find out and she didn’t tell us until November of that year. 

Today, 9 years later my mom is in the hospital recovering from her second knee replacement surgery.  I am guessing she is either driving the doctors and nurses crazy because she won’t listen to what they say and she is trying to do things she shouldn’t on her own, or she is the favorite patient making them all laugh…my bet an equal amount of each.  If anyone wants to hear my mom’s story she is happy to share…giving credit to her success and positive attitude to God, plus she would tell you a joke or two.

Shanghai

We arrived in Shanghi on Friday night and went straight to the hotel.  Adam and I went out with a couple of his co-workers to find some dinner, which was more of a challenge then is sounds.  We ended up eating pastries at Starbucks, as it seems most places around the mall closed at 10 or earlier. 
Saturday we went to the Expo and decided to go to the places where we wouldn’t have to wait in lines.  Personally I think it is ridiculous to wait 9 hours to spend 20 min looking at the exhibit.  We of course had to go to Norway (because my family would be disappointed if we didn’t) and there was no line.  We went to Denmark and Switzerland.  On the plus side most countries would let you skip the line if you had a passport from that country and since Adam and I went around with a Malaysian and a Singaporean we got into those without waiting, and honestly the small countries were my favorites.  Unfortunately the good old US of A wouldn’t let us skip the line.  Most exhibits had tourism videos and were built to mimic traditional architecture.  There were lots of pictures, hand crafted souvenirs and of course each country had food and drink we defiantly took advantage of the drinks since it was super hot all day.  We ate lunch at the French exhibit which allowed us to skip that line and ended the day going to the African exhibit, which was a huge building with a different booth for each country.  We got on the bus at 6:00 went back to the hotel and showered before going out to sight see a little and have dinner.  We (along with a couple of Adam’s co-workers) went to the tallest building in Shanghai (until a month ago it was the tallest in China…and I think I read that it has the highest viewing area in the world).  The floor had windows in it so you felt like you were walking on air…it was really cool! 

Sunday Adam and I chose to sight see rather than go back to the expo.  We had a nice leisurely lunch in a European area at a sidewalk café.  We went to the old town which had a traditional Chinese garden (I figured out that apparently what I have called “west lake park” is a traditional Chinese garden).  We looked for an antique village but where the map said it was, was just a busy road and apartments so we went back to the mall so Adam could go to Best Buy…it’s amazing what you miss.  We took a taxi to the Airport and met our tour group…did I mention this was our first ever tour group…and Chinese none the less!  If you have ever seen a Chinese tour group, they are hilarious (not making fun, just making an observation).  Since our tour group was made up of internationally minded, highly educated Cree managers, ours was pretty low key and most people broke off from the group.  ANYWAY we got back to Huizhou at around 1:00 am and the bed never felt nicer!
Just something I would like to point out…so far on every flight we have been on (and we have been on some really cheap flights), no matter what time of day or how long the flight…there was meal service.  As someone who has grown up on airplanes and remembers the day were you would at least get a snack on flights over 2 hours…meal service is something I really miss!

10 Weeks

According to my due date I am ten weeks today, however according to my last ultrasound I was ten weeks on Saturday.  I know that each ultrasound will vary day to day but I am going to keep going with Mondays.  This past week has been a roller coaster I had a couple days where I felt good (the better side of nauseous) and there were days that I have felt worse than I have felt EVER!  I have to say telling our families made all the sickness go away.  It is so nice to be able to talk about the pregnancy.  We went to Shanghai this weekend for the World Expo…I almost didn’t go but I figured I would kick myself if I felt better and if I felt sick I would be fine hanging out in the hotel all day.  Saturday was great, we went to the Expo and thanks to my “condition” we skipped the lines which were as long as five hours.  There was a lot of walking which 3 months ago I would be able to deal with no problem, but now I needed to take a lot of breaks.  Adam and his coworkers would skip the line with me and I would explore for a few min. then find a place to sit and have a cold drink while the guys finished.  On the plus side this weekend I ate 2 actual meals (half of what a normal person would eat) but actual food.  On the same note I have continued to lose weight, as of this morning I am 1.5 kilos (a little over 3 lb) under my pre-pregnancy weight.  Which makes me think that my little bump that sticks around all the time is more than bloating…I think I will be one of those girls that shows early, which is fine with me.  My pants hang low and are a little roomy, but when I wear my fitted t-shirts I totally have the pregnancy look…as if I was about 4 months along. 
******Cool Week 10 Fact: The elbows on my babies arms are already working.

Change In Plans!!!

We told our families last night and this morning…they were all really excited and Adam and I are relieved that people know.  It’s been a hard secret to keep for 5 weeks and last night we caved, and stayed up to midnight making phone calls.  I think the winner for the most excited is my daddy (a new grandpa).