Back in Hong Kong

Two weeks ago I posed the question to myself whether or not I would ever see Hong Kong again. And now here I am. The last few weeks have been crazy, that is for sure. And as I sit at a local internet corner at the hotel here (the internet does not work on my laptop since I have zero admin rights and therefore my computer can not be adjusted to work with the free internet service) I wonder why I am here. I mean, my mind had been set on living in the USA again. I certainly never would have imagined agreeing to spend so much time away from my family. January was hard enough. What am I doing?

That is the question on my mind. I know I am helping many people - and not just Prudential - by being here. But is it helping me progress in my life? Is it making me a stronger person? Is it strengthening my family? Is it really helping my career? My answers to these questions change frequently. I think for now I am really just trying to help. But there comes a point where you can not help everybody. As my mind has been stretched back and forth over whether or not we should move back to Hong Kong I have been able to think long and hard about my priorities. I want to make sure I do not make this decision for the wrong reasons. I don't want to go just because of the money. I don't want to stay just because I am lazy and just got back. I don't want to go because I feel pressured to accept a promotion. I don't want to stay because I am mad at my company. So many things to think about. I asked for 2 months to think about it, but now that seems like an eternity. I just want to make the decision now. Pray and go to the temple and say it's done. I look forward to that day.

In the meantime I will most likely be blogging much more as my free time will have grown substantially. I am here safe. I miss you.

I think I miss my bellybutton

I think I miss my bellybutton. It was nothing too fantastic to start with, just your ordinary innie. But it was mine and I liked it. But now, as I have this wonderful and adorable little parasite growing in me, it's slowing disappearing. First it grew wider and shallower. Now it's just very little and very shallow. Sometimes, when I take a very deep breath, it even pokes out a little. Yikes! I just hope that in a couple months, after my wonderful and adorable little parasite makes her entrance into the world, my bellybutton will return. Until then, I'll remember it fondly.

Where do we turn?

1 So many people have so many real sadness in their lives lately. Just last night, terrible tornados tore homes down and people woke up homeless and 30 people killed, just by freak tornados in February.
1 The sting of pain from sin, the heartache of losing loved ones, is all around me.
Just in my temple recommend interview this past Sunday, I told President Ketcheson how I was happy, and able to help many people; how I am having a friendship luncheon this Friday with 10 women to make Valentine cards for all the people in our ward who need extra love; how I have time in a world when no one else seems to, to be able to bring dinners in and serve in the temple and do genealogy work and help others; and how I have such a loving husband, who holds the priesthood and loves me; and how our family is so close and supportive.
This morning, I am saddened by news that my sister's cancer may be back. and as I ponder her life, she is always Christlike, and she has always been there for me. I wondered who can I turn to when I need to talk? she is been my listener, and now, I will certainly not burden her with my cares. and I have a visiting teacher who really is only mine so I can help her... and a mother never wants to call her kids and tell them her problems, as they usually have plenty of their own. as I read my scriptures, I remembered again, for the thousandeth time, that I can turn to the Lord for peace.
My tears flow freely and far too often lately for good people around me grieving and sad.
I have never had this many people going through so much. I wonder if we are being prepared for more things to happen. we need to be strong. let us make sure we help each other, comfort each other, and make each other happy. someone please send me a good joke! :) I was going to give up cookies and candy for lent, but it is going to be a cookie, candy, and diet coke type of day for me.
I will send you Kathy's updates as I get them. she is down to 115 pounds, and has test after test and doctor after doctor to go to. Fred is being his stubborn self about the church, but that is another whole blog.
Kathy says she doesn't care if she lives on this side of the veil or the other side, she was blessed to see her grandchildren, in her last blessing, and she did. she is so brave. I am not saying this is final, but it looks bad. she knows it is up to the Lord to heal her or take her. she is ready for either. she gets a blessing this weekend. the sooner the doctors find the cancer area, the better. They knew her cancer could come back, so she was ready for this. Please add her to your prayers, and add Fred also.
ps- Kathy, I have felt your sadness, and prayed for you and Jimmy every single day, as I do all of you.
This sounds like it will be not just a year of change, but a year of challenge and growth.
Be faithful and true always.

Happy Groundhog Day

So like mom already mentioned to everyone before, I got into BYU Hawaii. I opened the email last night as I seriously could barely breathe and as I read it, tears came to my eyes. I AM SO HAPPY AND EXCITED! AND I am definitely going and will.... be in Hawaii next fall. The cool thing is that I really have always wanted to go there since I was little and although it feels amazing because Jimmy will be there, it also feels really good to accomplish something that I have dreamed of for so many years. I can't even think of all the things Hawaii will actually bring but I know it will be an incredible experience. It is so nuts to think about what God has in store for us and our plan here on earth. The best thing about this is that I feel 100 % that it is right and this is the path I need to be on which is beyond amazing considering how wonderful the path is. It is going to be hard being away from everyone but it will not be the one person who's hardest to be away from anymore. AND knowing that, is the BEST feeling in the world. So family, it is obviously not set and stone yet because my hand does not possess a certain ring on an important finger but a possible wedding in Hawaii is looking pretty likely and if it could be considered in your plans for the later of the year that would be appreciated since I want so badly for all of you to be there when I get married... not that I'm jumping the gun or anything =)
Also, Jimmy leaves for Iraq today. If you remember to occasionally keep him in your prayers that would mean so much to him and me. I love you all!!!!!! and Happy Ground hog day!!

Congratulations to Kathy!

I know how hard you worked for this, and I am so proud of you! You have always wanted to go to a far away college, and I guess BYU Utah isn't far enough.... :) All of you are so talented and successful in each of you own ways. You can each do whatever you put your mind to do. I hear so many parents these days say that they can't 'make' their kids to homework, or get 'A's, go to church, or do chores. How blessed am I as a mother!

Where have I been?

I notice that I already did a post with this title before, but hopefully it won't confuse anyone. I have so much to write and know that I can't possibly put it all down. It has really been a rollercoaster ride the past month. I am so used to having such control over my life and it really feels like I haven't lately. It is amazing how things can change so quickly and how life is so open to possibilities. First let me say that you should go see Cloverfield. I know Tevia blogged about this and said I would blog more. I'll just say that this is one of the few movies I have seen in years that made me really excited and think about things. It is pretty "choppy" so expect that. This is a movie to see in theaters - which are rare these days. Go see it. Enjoy. It is like being on a ride at Cedar Point. I have noticed that it is a very polarizing movie. I absolutely loved it so looked online to see what others thought. I saw that many people were like me and loved it, but that a large portion of the people HATED it. I mean really hated it. Some said that the people in their theaters booed. Nobody booed in ours. So go see it and see which end of the spectrum you are. Jake, Tommy, you will like it.

As you know from my blog the last month has been emotional. We were asked to come back to Phoenix and the whole situation made me upset. I really felt like Prudential no longer cared much about me and in the end really made a decision to look for other opportunities outside of Prudential. I have been in contact with a few companies and had started to consider moving outside of Phoenix. Tevia was on board with this decision and I must say that overall I had a very negative attitude about my work and was feeling like life was being a little annoying.

Tevia and I arrived from HK on Saturday. I loved being with her our last week in HK and was excited to be back. I embraced my boys and enjoyed the weekend. Monday was work and I headed back to the office here in AZ. The first part of the week was our "Team Forum" which is like our annual company meeting for management. It was great to see many of my friends and colleagues from Phoenix and around the globe. I was reminded of how many great people I work with. And then I heard the shocking news. They had fired my boss in Hong Kong. Upon hearing the news I was reminded of my prediction to Tevia earlier this month: that Prudential would soon be asking me to return to HK. Who knew that request would come just a mere 3 days after returning.

Over the past few days I have spent a lot of time with our Exec VP of EMEA/APAC and the President of our company. Their goal was to convince me that things had gone awry in Hong Kong and that they screwed up and needed me to return. I told them that we should have had this conversation weeks ago. At this point our children are already in school here in AZ and we weren't going to take them out. They therefore asked me to consider two solutions - one a short term and the other a long term. The first was short term. They wanted me to go back to HK for the next 3 to 4 months. Understanding that my kids were in school they asked that I go for 4 weeks in HK and then 2 weeks back here in PHX. The second solution was a long term solution where they wanted my family to return to HK on a long term assignment for the next 2 - 3 years.

These days have been filled with a lot of emotion, frustration, deep thoughts, and questions of trust. Now all of the sudden I am the golden boy that has the solution to their major problems. In speaking with them it is apparent that my boss in HK really screwed things up by literally lying to them about our desires and options in HK. They also have sincerely apologized for putting us through this and the President offered (and has continued to offer) that he come by my home to speak with Tevia personally to apologize and ask for our trust.

I asked that they give me 60 days to consider the long term solution. But I needed to get back on the short term solution by this weekend. That didn't give us much time. In the end they have offered me some nice incentives to go, which is nice since it would be a very large sacrifice. The whole decision has made me really question myself. What it comes down to really is whether or not I can trust our President. Honestly I have always trusted him - even though I am skeptical of most senior managers. Not many people in my position have the opportunity to work as closely to the President of the company as I have been able to - and certainly not on a daily basis as I have this week. But the biggest question has been: am I getting played? Am I a sucker?

I would never have imagined ever agreeing to spend nearly 3 months away from my family. NEVER. Yet here I was contemplating it. Contemplating just days after I had decided that it was time to move on to another company. Contemplating it because I care about the people back in Asia and know they need help. Literally in tears as I imagined spending such time away from Tevia and my boys. 3 months isn't that long in the scheme of things, but at the same time each day is a blessing we have to be with our family. What if something happened to my family and I had missed out on just a few days I could have been with them? What if I was selling out my ideals for a few bucks and a step in my career?

I didn't have the time to make the decision that I would have liked. I didn't have the time to spend days in prayer and then go to the temple. But Tevia and I decided that this short term decision wasn't as big of a decision as the long term one which we definitely will spend much more time on.

So today I told them I would help. I haven't signed anything and will pray and fast about it this weekend. But I think that it will go forth. And I'll be buying a ticket to be in Hong Kong by Feb 11. I really hope that I am doing this for the right reasons. I think I am. I don't think I am being lured by the money. I really don't care about that - though I do think they should give me some due to the time apart from my family. But more than anything I really hope that I haven't been sweet-talked into the decision by management. I hope they really do see the value that I have to offer them and that I'm not just some quick solution they need to fix a problem. I think my biggest fear is that we help out with this short term solution and then decide not to go to HK. How will they react? Will it be perceived negative? I posed this exact question to the President and he assured me he understands it is a family decision and we must do what is best for our family and that there are other opportunities for me here in PHX. I think that would be the true test. I think that is the only downside. That is my only fear: that I sacrifice a lot to help them out and then decide to stay in Phoenix and then I go back into the background and feel betrayed. I am a trusting person, but I don't think I've ever had to put so much trust into management at work. This truly will be a HUGE sacrifice for me. I HATE being alone. I HATE being without my family. But I guess in the end even if it does work out for the worse it only means a delay of a few months in our original plan. Life will go on. My family will still be here. We will still love each other. Many families go through similar situations. Kathy may be looking at a lifetime of this situation.

So in the end I guess my biggest fear is to be a sucker. I am a trusting person at heart, yet always skeptical as my generation is of authority. So I feel valued, important; skeptical, scared. Mom's posting about these moments in our life is so appropriate. I will take this on as a challenge and grow. I will hope for the best. And I pray that those days I am away from my family will not be in vain.

Our Greatest Growth

Oh remember, that it is when we are going through trials, adversity, and even just when we have hard choices to make, that we learn and grow the most. Our continual refinement is what we want, and need. This is done by the events in our lives that challenge us. What a blessing it is to get to make choices. What a blessing it is to know how to make wise choices. Is it hard, yes, it is. That is why we teach our children how to make easy choices as they grow, and then they learn to make more and more choices on their own. We all will have choices this year, and it will be a year of change. We knew that at Christmastime. I am personally glad that I know that all of you have learned how to make wise choices. We came here knowing we would experience comfort and pain, sickness and hardships, success and disappointments. We can look at this life as a challenge, a fun puzzle to figure out. These times will enable us to progress, and to learn our powers and talents. These tests are interesting, and we should rejoice in the opportunity to have them. How awful it would be without choices, without chances to change, or if we had to just do what everyone else said to do. Bret, I know you will make a good choice. It may be that both choices are good. Sometimes that is the case. I know Jacob and Cari will have choices also that affect their home, family, and life. You guys will be fine too. Tom, you have a decision to make, but it is simpler than Bret and Jacob's. Remember, all of you, that it helps to actually write down the advantages and disadvantages on paper. Sometimes just seeing it written helps. Sometimes the advantages of one way outnumbers the disadvantages, but the Spirit moves you in a different direction. I remember making those hard decisions about jobs and moving and having children. Dad and I wrote it all out, prayed and fasted, and worked it all out in our mind, then prayerfully. One of my favorite decisions was my choice to move to Utah. Everyone was against it in my family. It sounded too hard, too far, too crazy. Yet, when I was on my knees, I knew it was right. It was scary, and it created hardship for me, and fear. When the Spirit talks, and you know it is the Spirit, there is no denying it. It became a great blessing to me. What a great experience it was for me to learn to follow the Spirit, even against other advice. What a testimony to me that if we do, it works out for our best.
I am proud of you, and have great trust in your abilities, talents, faith, and courage. Be brave, patient, and true to yourself. We are behind you and support all of you in any way we can.

Just plain weird....

So I know that I am a complete romantic, more than most but I really wonder about the father and mother of the kids that I nanny for. Last week the dad came home from about a week long business trip and when he came in the kitchen he said hi to the kids and honestly did not even look at his wife until she finally said hi. He returned her hi with a simple hello and that was it! Not a hug or kiss or anything and she hadnt seen her in a week! Now maybe they are so used to him being gone all the time but I thought it was so strange. Also, a couple days ago a few more peculiar things happened. One, I was left alone with Amber (the baby girl) and she was so good and actually took a two hour nap together on the couch and then when she woke up she was all smiles and then the mom came home and when I told her how well it went with Amber she was like wow, I was so scared because every time I leave her alone with Roger (the dad) he says it drives him crazy because all she does is scream.... I have not yet heard this baby scream. I understand maybe she doesnt recognize him or idk something along those lines but still... weird. Then he was mean to Dawn (the mom) for the first time in front of me and I wanted to cry for her because she just looks at him and nods. Lastly, the mom mentioned to me how she would like it if I came earlier some Thursdays because she wants to volunteer at Christians school and said she could never leave the boys and Amber a lone with the dad for more than an hour even though he's home. I don't quite understand. And it makes me sad because the mom is one of the sweetest people I know and I feel like she is a single mom sometimes and really would go insane if I wasn't there. The kids are still crazy but I am being more strict and it is helping. I love it still and am so glad I have this opportunity. It does make you wonder though, when you know more about some one's kids than the parents. Anyways, I hope that I'm paranoid or something but really I get worried sometimes. Maybe they're going through a rough spot but either way I'm praying for them.

Insomnia?

So maybe Jacob's insomnia is catching. I woke up this morning at 5:30 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Granted that was the time everyone else in the house was going to bed, but they weren't that noisy. (They were doing homework - I saw proof on the whiteboard). I didn't even go to bed that early! So I got up and cleaned the kitchen to see if that tired me out enough to go back to bed - no luck. So I went ahead and came into work at 7:30. This happened once before last fall - up at about 6 am for no reason and I couldn't go back to sleep. That day I cleaned out the car and went and bought donuts for everyone. And cleaned the kitchen. Why can't kitchens stay clean? It's the darndest thing. Maybe it's got something to do with the three guys that live in my house and stay up all night snacking on random things..... Hmm.....

A Year Ago - Tevia Found a Part of Herself...

...which apparently had been missing. And she made me look up "calabash." I can say a year later she has not lost that part of her again. :-)

Finding Part of Myself

Waiting...waiting...

I have never considered myself to be an impatient person. Indeed, I think I am quite patient compared to the average person. But lately I find myself being completely impatient. One reason has been waiting to see my family again. I have never been good at being alone and the past six months have just really pushed my boundaries with this. I am so excited about seeing Tevia tomorrow, but the last three days or so have just been miserable as I just count down the hours. There is little ambition to go out or see the sights. Just working out and watching movies or playing Webboggle (which is now Wordsplay.com and was recently upgraded for an even better Boggle experience).

Then I am anxious to go back to the US. I am not necessarilly so anxious to leave Hong Kong; in fact I am quite sad to leave. But I am ready to move on and the first step is to return to Phoenix. And then I am anxious to start looking for other opportunities. It is time for me to seek out what else might be best for me and my family, but it isn't as easy to do from Hong Kong and so I have to get back to the USA first.

So I have received a lesson in patience that I haven't experienced before. I can imagine that if most people in life are always looking to the future and not focusing on the "now" how horrible life can get. It is so easy to just "float" through the day and block out what is going on around you. Unfortunately I think most people go through life like this. Always looking for that next big moment: be it marriage, a raise, graduation, kids, retirement. But I am trying to focus on the now - which is a lot easier when I am with my family. Once again I see the wisdom of families in God's eyes (not that I have ever doubted it as I write often in this blog). At least for me they bring sanity and remind me of the importance of now. For if there is one thing we DON'T want to see pass quickly (well, at least for me and others I speak to) it is the growing up of our children. It is hard to imagine that 10 years from now Jarek will be at BYU and ready to go on a mission. My kids make me want to focus on now - because they will soon be gone. And though that brings new opportunities and freedom as well as my parents are now enjoying, there will still be a yearning to be close to them.

I have been thinking a lot of what I want to do with my career. One area that I think would be fun is to create a blog. But what sort of blog will attract attention and hasn't already been created? I think the world needs a good family advocacy blog. A blog that points out the benefits of family and helps families see how to improve their families. A blog that is an advocate for changing our world back to being 'family-friendly.' So Jake, if you're up for a side project and some good brain-storming sessions, I think this might be a good side project for your internet safety deal. With the amount of good writers we have in the family and the good ideas some of us have, I think it could be a great opportunity to help improve our world AND have a fun job.

Candle miracle

When we returned from Cleveland, our house was spotless, as I left it. The people who used it for the funeral brunch had done an excellent job in cleaning up. You could hardly tell that anyone had been in the house. There was a nice thank-you note, and a few dishes left that they didn't remember where they went. The garbage was taken out, the chairs were returned to the church.
I have to interrupt here for a moment and tell you what my mother thought about people using our home while we were gone. Being of the older generation, she thought it was very unsafe. She was worried these people would steal things, make messes, break things, and even go through my drawers and find my bills and steal my identification and bank numbers. I told her they were mostly Mormons, but, of course, we all know that doesn't mean they wouldn't steal. I told her it was right after a funeral, and I doubted they were thinking about robbing my bank statements.
Anyways, I tried to convince her it was safe.

Later that evening, no, I think now even the next day, I forget, I was reading my scriptures and I looked up and saw a small glow from one of the candles on the mantel. The green pillar candle I have up there was lit. Now, I have never lit that candle, as it is too close to the wall. It is for decoration. It had never been lit. I waited and asked dad if he lit it, although I knew perfectly well he didn't, as he never lights candles. He didn't. That means that someone at the luncheon did, and that candle was burning for 2 days. Now, I consider this a miracle, that our house was kept safe because the Lord was grateful that we had offered to let a grieving family and ward use our home. Dad said not many houses catch on fire due to candles, but I disagree. We knew someone who's house did. Anyways, I am grateful to the Lord for watching over our home. We won't tell anyone here about it, or ask anyone who lit the candle, so the the RS president doesn't feel guilty. I feel so blessed, so many times.

Children of Men

This week I had the opportunity, thanks to China's wonderful censorship, to watch the movie Children of Men. (I must say that I love the fact that China edits their movies here. I believe in freedom of expression, but it is annoying that we take it to such extremes in the USA that we CAN'T have non-edited films except on TV. Here on HBO, Cinemax, etc. they are edited except they have one "unedited" channel for people over the age of 18. This gives people like me the opportunity to watch movies/shows that otherwise we wouldn't get to see unless it happened to show on regular TV years down the line). The movie is directed by one of my favorite directors: Alfonso Cuaron. He also directed "The Little Princess" and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." I loved both of those movies and love his style. The story to the movie focuses on a future where humans are no longer able to have babies. In fact, the movie opens withthe death of the youngest person on earth who is 18 years old. The film therefore studies how life would change if we did not have offspring or the hope of children. The result is that the world has erupted in chaos and many cities and countries are in complete ruins. Only Britain remains as one of the few countries retaining a semblance of order. It then focuses on the hope of one woman found to be pregnant and the impact - and importance - that may play to humanity.

It is not a preachy movie nor is it optimistic. But it certainly makes youthink about situations and how wonderful it is to have children in ourlives. I couldn't help but weep as you see this world devoid of children.I believe that the film, based on a short story, is insightful in the fact that it portrays a ruined world without kids. It reminded me of theProclamation of the Family and how the prophets have talked about the importance of the family. It also reminded me of the scripture in Malachi where he says "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." I have always thought that the "smite the earth with a curse" thing was pretty severe. Children do certainly bring hope to us. They make us better men and women. They give us a sense of vitality and faith in a world full of sorrow and despair. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I have had to raise 3 wonderful children. They have changed - and improved! - my life immensely. I can't imagine a life without them. I will see if I can get the film from clean flicks and maybe we could send it for others to watch.

Flying Week

I know this week will fly by fast for me. I am excited, but at the same time very nervous to go out to HK. It is still hard for me to leave my kids in the care of someone else for a long period of time (and by long period I mean more then 3 hours) Anyhow, I will have to do a lot of grocery shopping and also write lots of lists. It is comforting to know that Risa is over here a lot and is pretty familiar with our routine. I think she may be just as strict as I am, and will keep the kids on their schedule, so that makes me worry a little less.

Volleyball starts this week so that is another reason I know this week will zoom by. The kids aren't sad in the least that I am leaving. Malik especially cannot wait until I leave. Sometimes I wonder if he likes me much. I know he loves me, but sometimes I wonder about the like part. hehe.

I am glad that Bret had a nice lunch with Craig. Regardless if Bret spoke "job opportunities" with him or not, I am sure it was good to have someone to spend a portion of Sunday with and not be so lonely. I often forget what it actually feels like to be lonely. I don't think I have felt that feeling in ages! I am really looking forward to going on the airplane all by myself. It will feel pretty strange though only having to think about myself!

I am looking forward so much to being with Bret by ourselves. I know we got to go to Mexico together in 2006, but that has been almost two years ago. It is too bad that he will have to work, but that will afford me opportunities to roam around by myself and explore places that were hard to get to with kids.

On a side note, the kids and I were watching Ratatouille and it inspired me to bake. I was in the mood for cinnamon rolls so I made some. They turned out pretty good! Well, better go clean up!

Lunch with Uncle Craig - and lonely

Today at church I met up with uncle Craig as he is here in Hong Kong. It was great to see him. He is here this week for meetings and wanted to spend some time together. He had mentioned last week that we could do lunch on Sunday - so I was curious what he meant: whether he thought he would come over to my place or if he was thinking of going out to eat (on Sunday?). Well, we went out to eat. He suggested we go to Jumbo Kingdom, which is the big floating restaurant in Aberdeen. This was cool for me as I hadn't been there and was one of the places I wanted to go. It was great to speak with him and we had a good time eating dim sum and talking about things.

After lunch I came back here to my empty apartment. Sundays are tough. I get bored. I really don't like being alone, and on Sundays my options for being out and about are limited. No working out or hiking, etc. How lonely am I? Well, I end up spending my time watching movies like "She's the Man." Yes - pretty lonely. :-) I can't wait to see Tevia this weekend. I really wish I had a fast forward to get to the end of the week - but having just seen Click this week as well I learned that something like that might not be a good idea. Who knew I could learn so much from movies?

Hot Pots and Hiking in Hong Kong

Thursday night I went out to eat with Calvin Chin from our Singapore office (the one who introduced me to pepper crab and durian) and Winnie Chan (who is the head of finance for Asia). Winnie chose the restaurant and asked if we were okay with spicy food. If you recall, spicy food is not too popular in Hong Kong as it seems most locals don't like it too hot. We both told her we loved hot foods and she took us to a place called the little sheep. It is a famous "hot pot" restaurant with places throughout China. This was my first hot pot experience. When they seat you they cover your jackets (we had our suits and took off our jackets) and bags. I am assuming this is so that food doesn't get on them. Then you select a bunch of food to cook. Winnie chose for us as we can't read Chinese too well. Then they bring a big "pot" that is split into two sections. In one section is a "soup" of boiling water that is spicy. It has chili peppers, garlic, some twigs and other interesting and yummy things. The other side is the "less spicy" side. They delivered our food and we realized that Winnie ordered enough for probably 8 people. We had squid, oysters, pork, beef, shrimp, bean curd balls, mushrooms, greens, and more. It was amazing. Then you grabbed some raw stuff and plopped it in the hot pot until it was done. IT WAS FANTASTIC! I have never seen this in the USA. I'm not sure if they don't have it because of legal implications or what, but it was so fun and was very spicy and one of the best meals I've had here. I ate more than I wanted, but I felt bad that Winnie had ordered so much food. The meal was fun as we talked about how things could have been had I stayed here. They are great people. I will miss them. Our meal lasted nearly 4 hours and it was so fun.

Today I couldn't decide what to do. I had thought about it for a while and had been flipping (a flopper?) on what to do. In the end I decided to go down to Central and eat at a restaurant called Shiffy's Malik Restaurant which is a Halal restaurant that we would see on the way back from church and we always wanted to eat there since it had Malik's name. Then I would do some shopping and probably head over to Kowloon. But as I walked out to the bus it was HOT out. I was in a long sleeved shirt and pants and I knew I would be too hot. So I decided to change my plans and go hiking. I went back and changed; grabbed my backpack and some drinks and headed out for Parkview. I started at the reservoir where we took moms and pops with the boats. There was a 5K path that went behind our apartment in Repulse Bay and I thought it would be fun to see it from the perspective of on the mountain. It was a very simple trail (e.g. no big hills, etc.) and was beautiful. The day was crystal clear and I could see for miles over the ocean which is rare. As I reached the end of the trail there was a path that leads to the main trail called the Wilson Trail which goes across the whole island. This section went down to Stanley and went over two peaks called "the twins." It was beautiful out and I thought it sounded like a good idea so I took the longer trail towards Stanley. It was a tougher trail than I expected. There were like a million stairs up to the top of the first "twin" but I made it. It was a great little workout and gave me a gorgeous view of the south island and Stanley. I took many pics, but I can't get them off of my camera until I get back to PHX.

Tonight I think I'll go eat at Spices and then tomorrow is church and I should get to see uncle Craig. About this time next week Tevia will be here!

Enok's free balloon

This post isn't nearly as entertaining as the saga we are all reading so ardently, but it is a post never the less.

When I was out running errands I happened to stop into a Hallmark to fax some documents (a very expensive place to fax documents I learned) and the lady behind the counter was very enamored with Enok and his insatiable cuteness. She asked if she could give him a balloon and I, of course, said yes. This balloon went with us everywhere today. I tied it to his belt loop since he didn't like it on his wrist. If I just handed it to him, he would let go and then "bye-bye balloon." On the belt loop proved to be just the ticket. He could hold onto it when the fancy struck him, and then he could let it go and it would follow him around like a little puppy making it easy for me to see him no matter where he went.

It will be a sad day when the balloon is no longer floating above his head, but I am sure he will then just drag it around after him until ultimately, it pops!

over the river to grandma's

we leave tomorrow morning early to head to Cleveland. It is supposed to rain the whole way, but at least it is not snow.. we will miss the funeral, so we feel bad, but they are using our home for the private brunch after the funeral and cemetery. we are glad they feel comfortable using it without us being here. we are having dinner at dad's on Friday night, then we will be at my mom's from then on if you need me. she doesn't know that Kathy and Fred our coming in, they told her that Fred would be in Germany. we are having her picked up in a limo. she has never been in one. we are all going to the Pomeroy house, it is supposed to be delicious. we will drive home right after church on Sunday. we may hit snow in the hills of PA., but we hope not. I can't believe my mom made it to 80.

Tour De Phoenix -- Part II

PART II
There is no need for a play by play of the next 8 hours. Paragraphs will suffice in this part of the vacation. We really should ask our phone companies to transcribe the cell phone calls out during the drive as I am sure they would add to the historical accuracy and altogether ridiculous environment I am about to illustrate. For posterity sake, I will continue to speak from a third person point-of-view.

Jacob seems to think we left Provo some time between 5 and 6 with the goal of being replaced as the driver soon after Provo traffic. And, after pulling back into the apartment parking lot one last time we remembered the special cord required to experience the bliss of Tom's musical selection on his new MP3 player. There is a major flaw with the MP3 player not previously understood. Someone has to actually select the songs to listen too. The controversy that arose was impressive and after several arguments and vetoes, it was decided only Tom was allowed to select songs. This was unfamiliar to Jacob who, being used to his own car DVD MP3 filled of only songs he liked, still hung to the now fabled idea that the driver of the car is the musical selection expert.

About 30 seconds after Cari was banned from ever selecting a song again and about 30 seconds before a massive wind gust full of white stuff smashed into the car, a new phase was born. "Fox Three, Fox Three!" were the first words out of Jacob's mouth after the screaming, laughing, and dodging began. Kathy being cautious after her name was mentioned so many times in PART I, had requested a bag in case history was in fact repeatable. Irony, sometimes cruel, sometimes funny, and in this case just plain disgusting, found itself into the bag Kathy was using. It only had one task, but it performed magnificently by becoming a small hole in the bottom of the bag.

This is where the dodging part mentioned earlier began. Kathy, upon finding her circumstances rapidly declining in elegance as somewhat suspicious substance was exciting her bio-hazard containment device, decided it would be prudent to escape further humiliation by attempting to keep the substance airborne by accelerating the said device in a circular pattern. Gravity however prevailed and the substance was unwilling to stay airborne but did discover, that in fact, the laws of physics provided the said substance new vectors and magnitudes of direction. When the worse was over "Fox Three," a Hollywood exclamation when firing a missile, was introduced and used as a warning in future physics experiments in to hope the chapter on collisions would not be discovered. Kathy, Tommy, or Jimmy may want to provide a back seat follow up on the physics described above.

Jacob will not say who, but soon after "Can we go back to Provo?" was asked by one of the 5 crew members. Jacob replied "no," but soon found himself missing his house at Bag-End err Provo.

The next 4 hours were fairly repetitive and only a few new discoveries were made. However one that comes to mind is the sudden change from a two lane highway to a one lane highway every time the wind would peak over 40 miles per hour and Kathy would throw up. While the truckers seemed to be annoyed at this inconvenience, they at some point must have noticed either the large number of families having picnics on the side of the road with strange parking habits, or they also decided the middle of the road provided an excellent view.

This view may need to be examined a little closer. It was very similar to a modern day computer monitor. Depending on the speed of a machine a monitor can have a variety of refresh rates. However, if you use the computer too fast, the rates will drop and anomalies will begin to become discernible. The windshield, or car monitor if you will, was currently displaying an older screen saver from earlier versions of windows called mystify. This simulation gives the effect of flying through space at light relative speeds. There are setting which can increase the number of stars viewable and the speed at which they randomly pass the screen. In our car version, the the number of stars was equivalent to the number of times Jacob has made up a statistic in random conversations, and the velocity being set to ludicrous speed, or about 30 miles per hour. This speed kept the refresh rate up just high enough to hypothesize we were currently on a highway. The term, "White Knuckle driving," was now understood by Jacob.

As I have class in 10 minutes, I guess the Cedar City portion of the trip will be moved into part three of this blog.

Hazel Marie Wall Says Hi!

That is all...

Tour De Phoenix -- Part I

PART I
In the upcoming months and weeks we are sure to see many different versions of the now famous Tour De Phoenix but I need to state for the record that mine will remain the most accurate. If you could play the vacation backwards I am sure it would be sitcom worthy. Yeah we are talking like a 800,000 dollar Ted Danson episode here.

Events leading up to the drive:

October:
Dre Scott(Cari's friend) is getting married!(no date)
Nicole Knutti decides to get married!(no date)


November:
Kathy asks us to host Jimmy for a bit and take him down to PHX.(no date)
Dre establishes a wedding date and we book our flight to DC from PHX.
At this point, Kathy is still driving back with Tommy.(no date)
Kathy informs us she will be flying out to NY with Jimmy from PHX.(no date)
Nicole locks down her wedding date and we are relieved it does not conflict.

December:
Tevia is pushing harder for an arrival date in PHX of which we have no clue.
Kathy and Jimmy buy plane tickets and we know the dates of their planes.
An estimated departure of Wednesday morning is scheduled.

Mid December:
Kathy learns her last final is not until Thursday.
The new time of departure is Thursday afternoon.

Late December:
Kathy discovers she can take her last final early.
The departure time moves to Tuesday night after Tommy's last final.

Sunday before:
Kathy explains she must drop Christmas presents off at her job on Thursday.
Departure delayed until Thursday afternoon.
Tommy decides to spread his finals out since more time is available.

Monday:
Tommy and Jacob only take one final.
Kathy explains we really don;t have to wait all the way to Thursday.
Wednesday night becomes the new goal of departure.

Tuesday:
The weather report predicts a ridiculously bad storm to hit on Wednesday.
Jacob and Tommy each only take a single final as Thursday is the new target.

Wednesday:
Not a cloud in the sky, finals are not done but could have been.
The weather prediction is a horrible night with the passes closed.
Tom and Jacob schedule to take their last final Thursday morning.

Thursday Morning:
Still not a cloud in the sky.
Flurries develop just after finals are completed.
The weather prediction says the worst of the storm hasn't yet hit.
It also claims Friday morning will be the worst.
The decision is to beat the storm or wait until Friday afternoon.
Kathy throws up.
Jacob decides if we wait until Friday the vacation will be too short.
Kathy throws up.
Jacob turns into Grandpa Wall in an effort to get people put the door by 3.
Kathy throws up.
Jacob is apparently not mean enough.
Kathy throws up.
We leave Provo at 5 to 6.
Kathy throws up.
Tevia still doesn't know when we will arrive in PHX.(either do we)
To be continued...

Best of 2007

Here is my annual best of list.

Best songs of 2007:

Stronger - Kanye West:
Yes, he really bugs me, too. But dang he makes me want to dance. Plus he mentions Bapes!
Boys Don't Cry - Fergie:
Her new album was, surprisingly, good! I guess I shouldn't have doubted her so much. This song showed her softer side and almost made her good looking; for an old meth girl. BTW - Tevia HATES her. :-)
Please Don't Stop the Music - Rihanna:
Her new album was the bomb. I like almost every song on it. This song makes me want to dance. And you gotta give her props for using "ma ma say ma ma sa ma ma coosa" in her song. Nobody's done that since the King of Pop.
Piece of Me - Britney:
Hey, her new album was one of her best with several songs that remind us why she got famous in the first place. In this song she strikes back at her critics - right before going mentally insane and going to the hospital and losing her kids.
This is Why I'm Hot - MIMS:
This was Soulja Boy's Crank That part 1. Yes, it will be his only hit - just like Soulja Boy.

Best Film: Pirates - At World's End. Critics and others didn't like it, but I loved it. Chow Yun Fat was great; Keira looked good again (after looking oddly ugly in Dead Man's Chest); and Johnny Depp was able to play the same character without making it feel played out. Runner up: Transformers.

Best Book: Harry Potter 7. JK is a genius and deserves her money. She finished this series without any disappointment. I loved every word of it and she even made me cry for the death of a character I don't even like! Runner up: Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer.

Best New Geek Application: Grand Central
When this came out and I discussed with Tevia she thought I was crazy. When Google bought the company and it got bigger, she listened. When we went to HK and we needed some sort of solution for our phone she bought in and now we love it. I love this app which lets you get a phone line and have it as your primary number and you can route it to your other phone numbers (e.g. home, cell). It tracks voicemail and stores them as well. It can stop spam callers, screen calls, etc. And it is all free.

Sick Festivus 2007

I realize that I never posted about Christmas from MY perspective. So since I am all alone in HK and have all the time in the world, you will see me blogging much more. So here is my take on the Christmas holiday.

Thankfully I was able to land in Phoenix as scheduled (thank you good fortune and Cathay Pacific). I was able to wait around for a few minutes after landing and waited for my parents. Once they arrived and we picked up their luggage (which took nearly an hour) we loaded up in the Airport Shuttle and headed back to HOME. I was excited to be with family. Jake and crew were supposed to head down that night but there was a big storm going on. In the end, and after several phone calls, they stopped and stayed the night in Cedar City due to foul weather. I believe the trek down from BYU could be a blog in itself and though I wasn't in the car which was packed with 5 adults and luggage in a small Accord on icy roads with a girl puking her lungs out. I'd say the Pioneers got nuthin' on the Wall family trek of '07 to Phoenix. They did finally make it the next day. And that is when I relived the film "The Thing." Except in our case "the thing" wasn't an alien but a virus. But he was just as effective at taking out his victims.

With at least one person being sick every day for the next week it was understandable that there wasn't much adventure on this trip. Indeed, there wasn't even much eating. Tevia's fabulous Christmas Dinner was enjoyed by a few but for the most part left in hopes of being eaten later by hungry - er, non-queasy - guests. I'm not sure what Kathy brought down from Provo, but at least we know it wasn't the Avian Flu from here. I find it interesting that I can go 6 months in Hong Kong - the capital of SARS and high pollution - and not get sick once. I return to the promised land for 2 weeks and get the flu???? At least I didn't throw up. I kept my streak going. Sorry Tommy! We all must be broken down from time to time.

It was great to see everyone and enjoy company. We were also lucky enough to meet Jimmy - or I guess Tevia and I were - everyone else had already met him. Jimmy was great to have around. He was a little quiet - but that is understandable. I am quite intimidating. I was happy to get to know him better. Once Santa came people were quite anxious to leave Slave I. In fact some people left on Christmas day! By Friday everyone had bailed except for Tommy. With several people concerned about him driving home alone (yes, the group who suffered through that awful trek decided air travel was much better than an Accord) I decided to take the chance and drive with him up to Provo.

So we headed out on Friday afternoon and decided to drive up through Vegas. The drive went well until we got to Hoover Dam and we were welcomed by a 90 minute backup. According to my google search this is quite common at Hoover Dam since 9/11. But I could not see any reason why. After 90 minutes we made it over the bridge but noone ever stopped any cars or anything like that. Maybe it is just a big rubbernecking thing. Due to the big delay we decided to stop in Vegas for the night. We had Tevia research some cheap places for us and she found Sahara for $50. So Tom and I booked a room in the oldest casino I have ever imagined and set out to see some of Vegas. It was very cold - which limited our curiosity. But we did see the Bellagio and the fountains. We ate some pizza at Ceasar's Palace and were happilly offered our fair share of hookers and Red Bull (yes, the Red Bull girls were quite disappointed that Tom and I did not take their free Red Bull). I realized that Tom really wasn't even old enough to be in the casinos - so the hookers were out of the question.

We headed back to the room which was about what you'd expect for $50. Still recovering from our viral attack we went to sleep to the sounds of rollercoasters and slot machines. We woke up early - especially since we were in Vegas which is on Pacific Time - and headed towards Provo. The ride went great from there. I will always remember our little trip as two of the Wall brothers sang Fergie and Britney songs along I-15. Who knew all of us Wall boys would be suckers for pop princesses? Upon arriving in Provo I demanded he play me in Madden on Jake's monstrosity of a TV. I soundly beat him the first game with my pathetic Rams and then watched him destroy me the next two games. I remembered Tevia's line from her book which said gamers hate 90% of the time they play. Oh how true that was! And I wanted to play again even after each touchdown I would sware how much I hated this game. At night we went to dinner with Jake Webb and Millie (and CJ!) at the Training Table which brought memories of Tevia and I. From the window I could see the place where I first told Tevia I was in love with her.

After dinner I went over to the Webb's place and got to see their chateau. It was fun being with them. We watched some Simpsons and they were also kind enough to let me beat them in Rumikub. While in Utah I realized how pretty snow is and there were times I was almost tempted to want to live there again. J Webb tried to bring me to my senses on the way to the airport. The plane ride back was uneventful and I was able to spend the next few days with Tevia and the boys in a post-flu environment. I loved every minute of the holiday. Can't wait to do it again. :-)

Goodbye 2007

2007 has come and gone. I would have to say it was a good year - though one of much change and stress. Some wonderful things happened in 2007. Jarek took his first step in the gospel and was baptized. It was a wonderful baptism and I am so proud of him. My prayers were answered in my career as I asked for an international opportunity. This provided us the opportunity to spend a good deal of time in Hong Kong. The experience helped our family in many ways and was a great experience. In the Spring of 2007 I returned to one of the areas of most joy in my childhood memory: the desert trip. This time I was able to bring my wife and three children and was thrilled to see my boys climb in the rocks and enjoy the same things I enjoyed as a kid. I even got to sleep in the big, green tent that we slept in when I was young. This trip meant a lot to me as it brought back great memories and at the same time gave my children some of the same memories.

2007 brought sadness with bad news from Tevia's father. This news brought much sorrow on Tevia and will take months to heal. It showed me once again the necessity to focus on the family and the importance of a father's influence. This year had a conference talk that has made me think of things more different than any other talk I can remember. It was the talk by Elder Oaks (who I also got to meet in person in 2007) about good, better, best. I have strived to think of more things in my life and try to determine if they are just good, or can I be doing better.

Through the good and the bad the year passed quickly and my family was blessed as usual. We escaped major sickness, major accident and continued to stay close. I am grateful for my family and look forward to being a better - or the best - father I can be in 2008. And the best husband as well. Once again in 2008 I will be praying for guidance in my career. I am not sure what will happen, but foresee changes ahead. This makes me nervous, but also excited. Who knows where we could end up? Maybe in South America? Europe? Texas? :-)

As 2008 will bring many changes on my family (missions, graduations, babies, weddings?) I look forward to spending as much time as possible with my family - both immediate and extended. Our families are so important and provide us so much support and love. In a society where the culture of community is slowly seeping away (or online) I am glad our family remains close. I love you all. Happy New Year.

For Mom: Malik's Testimony

Book of Mormon

As the church will be studying the B of Mormon this year for Sunday school, and I assume you are all going to be reading it, I thought I might start a blog for any cool inspirations and comments on the Book or Mormon. Is this possible for me to do? I challenge all of you to read it this year, even if you just read it. It is worth reading every single year. as many of you know, I just finished reading it backwards. I read it every year now, backwards every other year. I like it that way, it takes the story line out and makes me concentrate more on what the author is really writing about. This year, instead of just reading it, I plan on studying it more, and making notes as I read.
I know you are all busy, but I hope you all read at least a verse or two a day, hopefully a chapter a day. Good luck!

Happy New Year!

As we start this new year, we already know it will be full of changes and fun. Babies will be born, and I am guessing someone in our family will possible move on, (not one of us, like Milan or mom or uncle Sam). Some of us will change jobs, places of residence, etc. I pray for each of us, that we can make all our decisions carefully and with the guidance of the spirit. Maybe dad should have given out father's blessings. I say we go forth with a great optimism, directing our lives instead of letting life totally direct us. Let's enjoy the good, see each other often, share the pain, and make each other smile. I am so very grateful for all of you. I am still amazed at my life. I wake up in a safe beautiful home in cute warm pink pajamas, having yogurt and fruit and granola for breakfast. I can talk to any of you whenever I want. I have no fear. I have no war here in our land. I can pray whenever I want, buy whatever food looks good at the grocery store, even though I didn't have to plant it or grow it or weed it or even go looking far for it. I have scriptures to read, that I can choose to pick up every single day. I have a plan for my life, and I am living it. I have a temple close by, (well, kind of close). I have so many blessings. I continue to wonder why. It doesn't seem fair to me that some small children may wake up today hungry and in fear. It boggles my mind, and I hope the Lord can explain it to me someday. All of you have great blessings too. I exhort you as your mom to use them this year to bless others. Share the Gospel, read your scriptures, attend the temple, celebrate your freedoms, start your food storage, build your spiritual and financial reservoirs, and be kind to everyone around you. We are going to need each other. It is going to be a great year!

Enok

What a cutie! for those who weren't there, a few minutes after he learned he could climb up and play the piano by himself, he also learned he could stand on top of the piano! Jarek saw him standing on the keys, and simply said to Bret, "dad, I think you need to see this", to which Bret said something like 'in a minute'.
I don't know how Tevia is going to keep him from climbing up there and 'playing' the piano all the time....

Christmas 2007

I wanted to see who had the time, desire, and guts to blog about Christmas. I started to blog, and was interrupted by an Aquire game. by the time I got back, I see Tevia has already blogged about it on the other site.
cute pics, Tev.
I agree with the stinky adjective, literally. It was actually surprising to me to see this virus take us all out one at a time. I really didn't think we would all get it.
But- for the good parts:
- the singing! oh how I love to hear all of you singing together. It is remarkably uplifting to me, and brings the spirit so strong. I thank you for keeping the Christmas eve tradition of reading the story and singing. I love it.
-Being together, whether sick and tired, or just sick or tired... a mother can just sit in a room and see all of her kids and their precious spouses, and a boyfriend, and watch them and feel such joy. Thank you all for making the sacrifices to come together, through the snow, with other travel plans pending, being pregnant, all the gas and time and efforts are noted and appreciated.
-I know we didn't get to go many places, or play many games, or even each all the much hooplad food and treats, so, kind of like in the Grinch, we can say, "it came without presents, it came without bows, it came without......" of course, we did have presents and bows, (btw, thank you Tevia for all the wrapping paper and bows!), but even these were note the emphasis of what made us all happy this Christmas. we will look back on this year and see Enok's smiling face, Cari's little tummy and Jacob being so kind to her, Jimmy playing with the kids, Jarek getting older, Malik laughing, the boys entranced with Tom's air ball thingy, the chalk drawings, the walks, the hikes, the talks, the smiles, the love.
- thank you to all for the gifts. Tevia, you gave so much! the stuff from Hong Kong is great! the ornaments, the little boxes, the coasters, etc. and I know what I am going to get with my gift certificate. Kathy, I love my calendar. Tom, I can't wait to read my book. Santa, thanks for filling the stockings.
-I am glad we didn't focus on food or stuff. sorry Tev to leave you with so much leftover food.
- I have many great memories to keep me warmed and filled with love of you guys. I can't wait to see you all again, and I hope it is soon.
Maybe we should make a 5 year plan to all be in the same area by then. We will watch what Bret does, and then go from there.
a Happy New Year to all of you. it will be an interesting 2008!

Exercise Ball

Jacob told me that I could blog about pretty much anything and not only for cool amazing stories or events. So, here goes!! :)

I got a big exercise ball for Christmas from my parents. It came with a DVD with some exercise routines. Now, I love working out but just haven't had the time to do it for a long time. Especially with a little baby crawling around. So, this morning I tried it out while the baby was taking a nap. The routine was ok, I've had better. But it felt so good to work out and stretch all my muscles. It was way fun. I'm going to be better at exercising more and lose those last 5 prego pounds!!

Settlers two days after Christmas!!!

Tonight Bret, Tommy and I played Settlers. The first game I was positioned on a nine wheat and a nine ore. Oh yeah baby. And nines were rolled like crazy!!! So I pretty much kicked butt that first game. The second game I figured there was no way I could win because I didn't have my settlements on anything really that great. However, it was my super lucky night. I was on double threes for brick and built cities on them, then a settlement on a 2:1 brick port then turned that into a city. Now it wouldn't seem that threes would get rolled that often, but they were HOT!! I won again! Every time a three got shook, I picked up six brick. It was awesome!!! What an amazing Settlers night for me! I guess that was my prize for all the laundry I did today!! hehe.

In Vancouver

So, it is my first time in Vancouver. From the windows it looks beautiful. I am here waiting for my last leg of my flight back to Phoenix. Getting here proved a trial. I left my apartment at around 11:15 as the cleaning lady came in and I felt akward with her there. I arrived at the airport express after substantial traffic and I was worried the airport would be packed. Upon arriving at the gate the lady told me that the flight had been delayed 5 HOURS! Of course, that meant that I would miss my flight to Phoenix. She was very nice as she said that it was okay and they would get me a flight the next day and have me stay in a hotel in Vancouver.

I tried very nice - as I don't like to get angry - to explain that staying in Vancouver would not work. I had family coming in and they needed me there. So we spent about 30 mins looking for other options and none really came up. In the end she said I could "try" to get on the Cathay Pacific flight an hour later and then I would still have time to catch my Phoenix flight. But she said she could not confirm that over the phone and that I had to go to the airport to do it. So I hopped on the MTR to the airport and called Air Canada. They were very nice but once again said that Cathay can only do it at the airport. So I prayed a lot. And Tevia prayed a lot.

At the airport I went to the Air Canada desk and the woman - Sonia - was very nice. She went through the same scenarios and then said the same thing: that I would have to check at Cathay. She assigned me a "guy" whose job was to accompany me to Cathay and try to get me on business class there. Cathay put me on stand by and told me to come back in an hour to see. I hoped and hoped. I really didn't want to delay getting home by a night. An hour later my "guy" from Air Canada met me at the Cathay desk and we got a ticket. I was so excited.

Upon entering the plane I was even more excited as the plane - a 747 - had just redone the interior. This meant that the business class was set up like suites where you each get your own little "cabin" where you can't even see the guy next to you. Each could like down entirely flat to sleep. And each had a 15" television screen to watch movies, etc. I know for a fact I would not have gotten that on Air Canada. So my luck paid out on this trip. The flight went quickly. I didn't really sleep - but I'll try on the way to Phoenix. I finally got to see the Bourne Ultimatum. It was good. I also watched a Hong Kong movie called "Flashpoint" which I liked. It even had a scene in it that showed the Mormon church in Wanchai. It was cool.

So thanks Air Canada for delaying your flight. I got to fly a much better airline. The only thing is I'm not sure I'll get the miles - but it'd be worth it anyway. One funny note. The guy across the aisle from me was very odd. He must have had some mental issues or some sort of health issue as he could not sit still - even when he was sleeping. I think he annoyed the nice stewartesses. But he made it okay. Let's cross my fingers for the next leg.

Last night in HK in 2007

I had wanted to go to Stanley on my last night here to do some last minute shopping, but I ended up staying later at work than I wanted. So instead I hopped on the 40 minibus and headed home. I ate at Spices on my last night in 2007 - Singapore Noodles. It was great. Now I'm just chillin' until tomorrow. I can't wait to get home and be with family. I am excited.

We Miss Bret

I am glad you are having fun, but we miss you!!!! And even though I enjoy reading about your fun trips, I am sad that i can't go with you. :(

At church today Malik asked why we were always waiting for you and couldn't we just go find you. I said that it would be a long way to get daddy in Hong Kong. We are all looking forward to you coming home. We miss you and love you!

A Day Trip to Macau

After debating for a few days I decided to go to Macau yesterday. I had to do some laundry first in the morning, but then I grabbed my passport and a backpack and headed down to the pier. I bought my ticket and got on board the ferry which is a Turbojet boat that takes about 1 hour to get to Macau.


Macau is the oldest European settlement in Asia and was settled by the Portuguese back in the 16th century. It remained under Portuguese rule until a few years ago when, like Hong Kong, it was given back to China in 1999 and is now a Special Administration Region (SAR) for China (just like Hong Kong). It is a small "country" but since it is an SAR for China they have their own immigration, etc. As a US citizen I don't need a visa and could just get in using my passport. Let me just say quickly here how wonderful Hong Kong is with its immigration as to get in and out of Hong Kong I don't have to go through the immigration line. With my Hong Kong Identification (HKID) card I just stick it in the machine, put my thumb on the reader and go through. Why can't the US do this? It is so quick and easy. I love it.

Macau was appealing to me because since it was a Portuguese colony the official language was Portuguese (like HK was English) though most people speak Cantonese. But all signs and buildings have Portuguese names which was fun. It is very interesting being in a place where you are surrounded by Chinese people, but everything is in Portuguese. It seems like the ideal place for me as I speak Portuguese and a little Chinese. :-)

Upon arrival I had decided to follow a walking tour outlined in my National Geographic traveller book. It takes you to about 15 of Macau's places of interest and is all done on foot. I grabbed a taxi at the pier and had him drop me off at the Leal Senado (Senate building). Immediately I was amazed at how European (and Brazilian) it looked. The architecture and even the black and white tile streets/walkways reminded me so much of Brazil. A very interesting thing to see in Asia.

I stopped at a street shop and ordered a ham and grilled cheese sandwich and some passion fruit slush. It was dirt cheap and wonderful. The local currency is different, but they also accept Hong Kong Dollars, so I never even used the local currency. I walked up and down to the different places. The first really cool place was the Ruinas de Sao Paulo (Saint Paul Ruins). This is an old facade of one of the oldest churches/cathedrals built in Asia in the 1600s. It is beautiful and has a sense of awe about it. I can't upload my pics, but here is one from the web. When I am able to post my pics you can see some cool things. One is at the top it has carvings of the sun, the moon and the stars. The sun looks very similar to the sunstones on the Nauvoo temple. This was really cool to see a big symbol of Christianity in Asia. From there I went to Fortaleza do Monte (Fort of the Mountain) and some other churches and cemeteries. It was most enjoyable. I also went by the Lou Lim Ioc Gardens which were beautiful. Then Sun Yat-Sen's house and finally Guia Forte which is the setting of the oldest lighthouse in China.



By this time it was nearly dinner time so I hopped on a bus and decided to stop by a place I had seen upon arrival. It was called Fisherman's Wharf. Let me sotp and say that Macau has recently become the Las Vegas of the East. They have opened numerous casinos and most people come here to gamble and do other Las Vegas-like things (e.g. prostitution is legal). I avoided the hotels, though I have been curious to visit the new casino that opened a couple of months ago called The Venetian. It is a huge casino with water all around it and you can take gandola rides, etc. One of the new places they have built is called Fisherman's Wharf and it has a bunch of international places built up. For example there are places that look like China, Germany, Rome, etc. There is a huge Roman Colloseum and a big Volcano that apparently erupts each night. It was quite beautiful. There was also a part not complete yet called Tang Dynasty which was a huge Chinese building that is amazing to see. I am curious to see what is inside of it when completed.



While looking through these buildings I saw a place that looked like a bunch of African huts and smelled divine. It was an African BBQ place called Afrikana. It was an all you can eat buffet type place like a Brazilian churrascaria. Though I am not a huge meat fan nor eat a lot, I thought I would splurge and try it out. I had only spent about $3.00 USD since arriving and felt like I could fork out the $20 to eat there. It was good. They had some weird meats that I tried - some of them were awful. One of them was crocodile but I couldn't remember which one or if I liked it. The best was the roast lamb. In the end it was okay, but fun to try things. It seemed to reinforce that I am not a big carnivore. The best thing I had was from their dessert area which was a peach cobbler type of thing. :-)



I then walked back to the pier (remember Macau is fairly small) and got back on the ferry to head back to HK. I was back in my apartment by 10 PM. I definitely would consider going back - but I'm glad we didn't take the kids. It wasn't very child friendly and not much they would like to see. Maybe when Tevia comes back we can stay a night at the Venetian and check out some more of Macau. When I was leaving was when everyone was coming from HK. Almost all of their tourists come from either Hong Kong or Guangzhou (China). It was a quick, but pleasant trip. I most enjoyed reading the Portuguese everywhere and also seeing some of the differences between Brazilian Portuguese. I think the highlight of the day was sipping my passion fruit smoothie while sitting on a bench looking up at the Ruinas de Sao Paulo and feeling almost like I was in Brazil.

Ellery vs The Stairs

Ellery has been doing this the last week or so... we just wanted to share the fun with everyone! Hopefully I'll be able to log on a bit more for the next two weeks... till classes start up again at least!

Beowolf and Karaoke

The last two nights I have been looking for things to do to pass the time and do things that I normally wouldn't get to do if I were in the US or the family was here. Thursday I decided I would go see a movie. I was trying to decided on three movies: I Am Legend, The Warlords, or Beowolf. In the end I decided to go see Beowolf as it was being shown on an IMAX 3-D screen over in MegaBox. MegaBox is a mall on the Kowloon side (Kowloon Bay) which is really cool looking. It looks like a big "box" as you can imagine. I wish I had taken a picture. To get there you have to take the blue line MTR to the purple line to the green line. So at this point I have been on every MTR route in Hong Kong.

At MegaBox I ran into a missionary couple from Oregon and talked to them for a while. They had been here for 2 months. I then grabbed something quick to eat at MOSBurger, a Japanese burger joint that I learned to like in Singapore. I then headed up to the theater. The theater wasn't very full, which was strange for Hong Kong. I think that is probably because the movie has been out for a while. I grabbed my 3D glasses and went to my seat which I had purchased online prior. I had just seen "The Nightmare Before Christmas" in 3D a few weeks ago, so I expected something like that. But this was MUCH different. The IMAX screen was awesome, of course, but the 3D was amazing. It was 3D the whole movie, not just in a few scenes. It was very cool. The odd thing was that the 3D kinda made the people look fake - almost like computer-generated faces. But once you got used to that it was really cool. The movie itself was OK. The best part, to be honest, was seeing Angelina Jolie all golden on a huge screen. :-) I enjoyed the movie. During the end of the movie my Blackberry started buzzing like crazy. I turned it off after a minute. Afterwards I found out it was my pops trying to contact me. Sorry pops. I then called my mom and talked to her for a while on my way home.

Last night I went with a few people from work to do Karaoke. They have karaoke "stores" where you go in and you get a room that has a TV and some microphones. You then choose your songs and have fun. You can also order food and play games. You can even play Wii with friends or other things. It was a lot of fun. It is very fancy karaoke so you sound really good when you sing as it adjusts for bad tone, etc. We stayed for nearly 4 hours. Sometimes people stay all night long. We also played a dice game which I guess a lot of people play while doing karaoke. It was the dice game from Pirates of the Carribean. Who knew that was a real game? If you lose you have to drink. Since I don't drink they made me do push-ups. But I only lost a couple of rounds. We sang songs from Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls" to "Hot Summer Nights" to mandarin songs. Some of the mandarin songs have pinyin so I was able to sing them, too, since I really can only recognize a few dozen characters. I had a lot of fun. I then made my way home and was once again amazed at how crowded some places in Hong Kong are even late at night. It really is such a unique place.

desert trip and spring 2008

we did it! we went ahead and got tickets for Utah! we are hoping the weather holds out, and that some of you will want to go. we are coming in on March 19, a wednesday, and leave the next wednesday. if the weather is too cold for a desert trip, we can all find some other fun thing to do. we can drive all the way down to Zion, or we could go skiing. we will be flexible. we used frequent flyers, so we can always change them. I still plan on going out also after the baby is born, maybe early June, depending on when Jacob and Cari want me to come, and the blessing, and when Kathy and Tom come home, and if they need help driving our car back, etc. We understand that no one else will know if they are going on the desert trip for awhile, but we found a good ticket and took it. we have a big storm coming in tomorrow. I feel so bad for the Cangelosi's. We had all kinds of fun plans for tomorrow, and now everything is getting cancelled. They already cancelled
R S, and she wanted to go see everyone there in one place, like Ilene Angel, Lucky Edmonds, etc. too bad. I hope I still get to spend some time with her before the snow starts to fall.

Losing my mind - IKEA and Tokio Hotel

The last day or so two things have happened that make me think I am losing my mind. The first was yesterday during I lunch I thought I would walk over to IKEA and get an ice cream cone. I've been there a few times and it is like 5 -10 minutes from my office. 40 minutes later (say it in spongebob narrator voice) I was still walking around Causeway Bay and could not find it for the life of me. I couldn't believe it. I went back to my office so frustrated (you know I need my ice cream!) that I looked it up on Google Maps and it was right where I thought it was. I'm not sure if I went through a void or they moved it that day or what, but I could not find IKEA.

Then today something else made me scratch my head. Here in Hong Kong the music we get exposed to is different than in the USA. One group that is fairly big here that I have started to like is a German group called Tokio Hotel. They recently released an English album and I like a couple of their songs. Funny thing is that for the last few weeks I totally thought the group was a bunch of girls. To my surprise, they are all MEN! I couldn't believe it. I've seen a few of their videos and even listening to their voices I would have sworn they were girls. I do recall the first time I saw the video I looked hard to make sure it was a girl, but by the end I was sure. But I was wrong. I think that is so crazy. Are we at a point in society where we can't even tell who is a girl and who is a boy?

You can check out Tokio Hotel on Youtube. You can watch their video "Monsoon" and tell me what you think. :-)

Our Christmas Tree

Jacob and Tommy were ever to kind to go out and get a real Christmas tree this year. After about 45 minutes of driving around Provo Canyon, we found that very cute and small little tree that Jacob cut down with his saw and we brought home. Having never actually gone out to get a tree, this was pretty exciting for me. It might be a little on the Charlie Brown side, but it makes me happy. :-)

Sunday - Deep Water Bay - Romney's Speach

Church was lonely today without the family, especially after church as I headed up the stairs and passed the second floor where I usually go to pick up the boys. Not this week. Instead I went to get set apart and tell them I will most likely be leaving in January. Brother Collins in his Scottish accent said that wouldn't get me out of the setting apart. He gave me a great blessing and blessed me understanding to get through this time of choices and opportunities with my career. He also blessed me to remember my priorities of my wife and children. It was a great blessing. He then shook my hand and winked and said he hoped we would stay. He said you never know what happens and that he'd be pulling for my company to change their mind. :-)

This afternoon I decided I would take a walk along the ocean over to Deep Water Bay. I have passed that bay and beach many times on my way to and from work, but had never really gone there. It was a cool, overcast day and so I headed out and walked along the "seaside promenade" from Repulse Bay to Deep Water Bay. It was a gorgeous walk and a beautiful day. It was probably a little over a mile or so and I continued past Deep Water Bay to go as far as I could go until I ran into Ocean Park. On my way back I took off my shoes in Deep Water Bay and walked in the waves. The water was still quite warm and refreshing. By the time I made it back it was nearly dinner time so I heated up my Thai Red Curry in the microwave and ate. It was such a contrast to my day yesterday which was spent in the hustle and bustle of the city. Here it was like taking a walk at a resort with families and kids riding bikes and people walking their dogs. I wish we had taken the boys down here before. I'm sad that they missed out on this neat walk.

It is very interesting to see so much attention on the church due to Mitt's campaign. I think it has done a lot of good, but it will also cause a lot of backlash if his candidacy continues to be successful. I have tried hard over the past few months to like Mitt Romney. I find at times he seems great, but at other times I have disagreed with his stances and responses. I was excited to see his speech this week. Upon watching I think it came off very well. I agree with the WSJ article (link below) that the first few minutes seemed a little stiff, but he got into his own and more comfortable. I think it was a well-written speech and it would appear that most of the media embraced it. I thought his story about the founding fathers praying together was a great touch at the end. I must say that he won respect in my eyes after this speech. There have been numerous articles discussing his speech. I have linked a couple interesting ones here. They are what you would expect: a conservative response from the Wall Street Journal and a more liberal response by the Times. But both good.

I am excited to return to the States and get more involved in politics at a local level and to see how the Presidential campaign goes. It looks to be a fun race.

WSJ Article here.
NY Times here.

Saturday Alone

So what do you do on a Saturday in Hong Kong by yourself? Well, today I got up and made a plan. I decided to wait around until I knew Tevia and the boys got in safe, which they did, and then head out. I was so happy to talk with Tevia. She seemed happy, though it sounds like Canada Air isn't all that great. I guess I'll get my chance to try in two weeks. Sorry honey!

I got on the bus and headed down to Admiralty. I went through Statue Square where the "black man" statue is. It is some British guy. I then headed for the escalator. This is the world's longest escalator. It was built to help all the people that live in the Mid-Levels which are up the hill from Central. It goes down during the morning and then goes up the rest of the day. I was a little disappointed to find out it actually is not one big, long escalator. It is a combination of many escalators. But it was interesting. My plan was to head up the escalators and then head over to the zoological park.

I had heard that the zoo wasn't all that great and it was true. The kids and Tevia didn't miss out on much here. Certainly nothing like the Singapore Zoo. But it was neat having a large park in the middle of all of the buildings. From there I headed back to the escalator to eat at Taco Loco's which is one of the few Mexican restaurants here in Hong Kong. They weren't open yet so I had to linger around until the opened a little after noon. I ordered a barbacoa burrito and refried beans. It was a little like Chipotle but not quite so fast foody and not as tasty. It was good, though. It was unique hearing Mexican music in Hong Kong. The refried beans weren't really refried, but they were still good. The lime juice was fantastic. It was a good lunch.

From there I headed down the stairs (remember the escalator only goes up after the morning) to the MTR station to catch a train to Mong Kong. I shopped around looking for some little things. I bought a few things, but not nearly as many things as I expected. I did find my shoes that I was looking for, though, so that was worth the whole trip. They have a whole section next to the Ladies' Market that is just stores full of sneakers. I spent most of my time there even though 90% of the shoes are the same in each store. It's hard to understand how they all stay in business next to each other. But it was fun.

After that I headed back to Hong Kong island and decided to take a tram ride to Causeway Bay. Our family had done a tram ride last week, but it was short and at night. I thought I'd try a longer ride and during the day. It was fun as I got the front seat on the top level and got to see a lot. It took quite a while - so the trams downtown aren't nearly as efficient due to traffic. From there I got on my mini bus (#40) back to Repulse Bay. It was dinner time and I bought some food, which buying for one person is more expensive than just eating out downtown. But that's okay.

Now I am blogging and listening to some new music. I really like Simple Plan's new song (Untitled). It is sad. I also very much enjoy most of Britney's new album. Surprising. I tried to watch some shows on the computer using Tevia's one site - but I am too impatient. After 15 minutes and not being downloaded I just give up. I was very tempted to download BSG Razor, but I didn't! I'll wait til I get home. :-)

Until tomorrow.

Christmas Party - Hong Kong

Last night was our office Christmas party. The ironic part of it is that in the US our office is not allowed to have Christmas parties or even "end of year" parties for fear people might think it is a Christmas party. So here in a country where Christianity isn't very big we can have a party and sing Christmas carols about the Savior. In our own Christian USA we can't even have a party. Very odd. There is something odd about being in a bar and seeing 30 or so people singing Silent Night while they hold tequilas in their hands and are drunk beyond recognition.

It was a fun party. I left fairly early (10ish) as it was Tevia's last night and I couldn't rationalize staying out late on her last night. Many people, including our President and the Executive VP were out past 2 AM in Lan Kwai Fang doing jello shots and partying. For one of the few times in my life I actually felt a little uncomfortable not drinking. I think it is just such a part of the culture here. There were about 3 of us that didn't drink, but so many people kept trying to get me to drink. I think in the US people aren't quite so pushy - maybe because we have so many alcoholics that don't drink. We did some dancing (I was one of the few people to dance in the circle) and watched people act like idiots. Sometimes this is funny, but usually not. The odd thing was that the people that were the craziest tended to be non-Asian. They were the caucasions from Australia, Europe, or the USA. Most of the local Hong Kong employees just watched and laughed and took pictures. It was the first time in Hong Kong that I felt like maybe this isn't a town I would do well in. I mean, I could live here easily, but I am not a partier and it is such a big part of this town.

Tevia and the boys left today. I missed them the moment I walked out the door this morning (we were able to start work late today since most people were so drunk it was hard to get in early). I really don't like being alone. There are some things that I'll be able to do since they are not here, but the reality is I would rather have them here. Tomorrow I am going to do some shopping looking for the Adidas I should have bought last month but can't find now. It is pretty lonely here in the big apartment by myself. Maybe I'll go to a movie or something, too. I am just hoping the next two weeks go by quickly. I think they will. Work is much less motivating and so the days have dragged a little, but for the most part I am busy.

Oh, I also won the song contest at our party. We had to guess songs from lyrics and then sing some songs. Of course, most people wouldn't even participate since you had to sing, but I'm not shy. In the end we had to sing Christmas Carols. :-) I won, but they couldn't give me the prize since I am management. LOL.

Flying Home

Today I get to undertake a large task. I get to fly home, by myself, with three small children, halfway across the world. Am I crazy, perhaps a little. If I weren't just a tad touched in the head I would never be able to do this. I am so, so, so , so infinitely grateful that we are flying business class rather than coach. We will get to utilize the business class lounges and have attendants help the kids and I while flying. I think my biggest worry will be when we land in Vancouver and having to maneuver all the luggage(6 check on, two carry on, stroller and car seat) through customs. That will be a challenge, but I have four hours in which to accomplish this task since that is the amount of time for our layover there.

I will definitely not be too proud to ask for help, and I am sure I will need it. I have prayed mightily that my kids will be on their very best behavior and be very helpful. I have faith that all will go well. I don't feel nervous, just excited and anxious.

I was sad to have to say good-bye to Bret this morning. We all traipsed down to the apartment lobby with him to bid him farewell, and then I stood on the balcony and waved good-bye to him until he got on the bus. I know he will be sad and lonely because he will be all alone. I will have the kids and then someone with me at least until the 17th. So I will be fine.

I can't wait to see my sister at the airport. My heart leaps with anxiety just waiting to see her there waiting for us. I will get to see my family and then all of you guys (except for jake and millie boohoo, sniff sniff) in the very same month. I am so lucky!

Well, here is to seeing you all on the flip side. Much love to all of you...

My December

It is hard to believe it is December. The year has gone way too fast, and even worse, our time in Hong Kong has seemed to fly. It is crazy that Tevia and the boys already leave this week. Then two weeks later I will be back in AZ for Christmas. After that, who knows. It has been somewhat frustrating dealing with my company the past few weeks. As I work in the relocation industry, I am very much aware of the issues that arise with international assignments. The truth is, a large percentage of people leave their company within a year or less upon returning from an assignment. The reasons are varied, but the biggest reason is that while they are on assignment they tend to be given larger responsibilities and opportunities. Upon returning to the their home country they tend to go back to a job they may not even want and certainly have less responsibility. That seems to be exactly what is happening with me. Here in Hong Kong I have had much more responsibility than in Phoenix. Now that my time to return is approaching, the thoughts of where to put me begin to come up. It is amazing that companies are willing to spend so much money on an international assignment and then don't manage the repatriation. My coming here was a huge advantage to my company. I was able to bring stability and leadership in a time of major unrest and distrust. But while I was away there were many changes that took place in Phoenix. Opportunities that may have presented themselves for my future development in Phoenix have come and gone while I didn't even have a chance to apply for them. The company didn't know what to do with me as they had an idea that maybe I would stay in Asia. The reality is that I would love to have stayed here, but not as a local hire. With three kids that would be way too expensive. So when coming up with something for me to do when I get back to Phoenix my name comes up for many projects that need some leadership and experience. The problem is that these are not ideal career paths and may further disrupt my growth at my current company. And so, like many expats returning to their home, I feel unwanted, forgotten and uncared-for. It isn't true - I know that many people do care about me and do want to see me grow in the company. But so much of growth in a company comes from timing - and by being away for 6 months I have missed out on some of those opportunities.

That isn't to say I haven't had opportunities. This assignment in Hong Kong has given me great chances to learn new skills and things that I would never have learned in Phoenix. It will look awesome on my resume and truly be representative of a great growing opportunity. And it was something I wanted. I asked for this - and was fortunate to receive it. So isn't it ironic that after having received this great opportunity and my company investing so much in me that I now wonder about my future with them? As a relocation company this should have been handled so much better. I mean, I still don't know when I will be going back! I thought I did, but then all of the sudden some things came up relating to my next project in Phoenix where they are now asking that I go back sooner. I remain patient but it becomes ever more frustrating as I am unable to make plans for my return. And so now I may be working on an exciting project, but at the same time not taking of my best skills which is motivating and leading people. It is amazing how often this takes place.

So hopefully we will find out more this week. But I am not optimistic. And for the first time in my career with this company I feel like it might be time to move on. Once again, I find it ironic as I love this company and have enjoyed the people so much. But at the same time I need to look out for my career and make sure that I am doing what I like and being rewarded for what I can bring to a company. I would love to make that happen with my current company, but if not then I will make the jump. It has been a crazy ride lately. 6 months ago I had no idea I would be living in Hong Kong at this point. And certainly had no idea that in 9 months I would most likely be back in Phoenix doing something altogether different. Hopefully it will all work out.

I will miss much of Hong Kong. It really is a great place to live and work. I love my employees here and the work I am involved in. I enjoy many aspects of life here. I love the church here. The one thing I really miss is basketball and working out. I'm sure if we stayed here longer I would find ways to play basketball or develop habits of playing other sports, but for now I just seem to work and eat and that combination is not good for a waistline. In that respect I do look forward to Phoenix.

Snowing! and Christmas Around the World

Well, it's snowing in Provo. :) It's not the first snow of the winter, but it looks like it'll be the first snow that sticks. And it seems fitting somehow to wake up to snow on the 1st of December. And now, if only I could sleep in past 8 am on a Saturday. Ugh.

Jacob and I went on a date last night. Novel, I know. We got tickets for the BYU Folk Dance Show, Christmas Around the World. This was one show we'd never been to before, but we really enjoyed it. They did dances from about 12 different countries. I think the ones I liked the most were the dances from the Philippines and Slovakia. Really cool. Jacob LOVED the band they had playing for most of the songs. They were extremely talented. Made me want to play an instrument again. Probably not enough to actually start playing again :) , but it was still really cool.