Sunny Southern Cal

How great is Southern California? I always get upset with my pious friends to the southwest tell me how great the weather is when I'm drowning in Utah's snow, but now I am on the other side, and it feels wonderful to be pious. MaryAnne and I are in Carlsbad, just a few miles from the beach. We took a walk along the beach with Annie this morning, and I was in jeans and a t-shirt, but it was too warm for me.....I needed to be in shorts and a t-shirt, and on the 30th of December! It is such a fantastic experience to stay with Tanners. They are warm, inviting, and expert hosts. We are looking forward to a couple comfortable days in Southern California before heading back to Provo on the 2nd. We think we've found the place for residency (even before we've started med school).

One Good Thing

I had one of those days. Several things did not go just how I had wanted them to. But the one thing I really wanted to get done today was bake bread. We're out and I've been craving hot, fresh bread. Even when most of my other chores were left undone, I thought to myself, "I've got 5 perfect loaves coming out of the oven in 17 minutes". Then I was cuddling with Annie to get her to sleep (at 3:30 for her first nap of the day) and I heard Brad say, "I don't think there's any salt in this bread." Right then, I realized I never put the salt in. For some reason, this devastated me. I was hungry, frustrated, and tired and it felt like too much that I'd forgotten to put in the salt.

Several hours (and some tears) later, I walked into my apartment and it smelled like fresh bread. I may not have anything to show for it, but at least I got the scented apartment. One of the reasons I love to bake my own bread is for the smell. I'm so glad I had that one good thing come from the disaster.

Thinking back on the whole silly thing, there are lots of good things; chiefly that I have an understanding and compassionate husband who is kind to me and who cleaned our apartment today. I guess I shouldn't be so sad about one ruined batch of bread.

Thoughts from an Insomniac

Last night I finished my final assignment for school EVER! It was such a great feeling! I wanted to share my elation with someone, but Brad had long since gone to bed and no one was on g-chat to share in my joy (I was hoping my nursing friend or sister would come through for me, but no luck). I quickly got in bed, but I had no luck sleeping. I had so many emotions and thoughts running through my head. Some of them were quite trivial and some were quite poignant.

As I laid in bed, I contemplated being done with school, quite possibly forever. Initially I felt elated. It is an exciting thing to never have another deadline from a teacher again. The stress levels in my life are about to go WAY down. And most importantly, not being in school will allow me to focus on my daughter FULL TIME (watch out Annie, we are about to get really bonded).

But then I started thinking about my friends from my cohort. I teared up in bed thinking about how much I will miss each of them. I thought about the ways that each of them has impacted my life. I love that they have been a constant in my life for the past year and a half. I honestly love each one of them and it is going to break my heart to not see them very frequently. My mind raced with all the memories from the past year and a half. I thought about working ridiculously hard on a completion only paper, stress relieving ice cream runs, how loud the printer was in our corner of the lab, food talked about and shared, a visit in the hospital after Annie was born with cheddar and sour cream chips, trips, putting up with my highly emotional and pregnant state, etc. (It's made me tear up again . . .) This is the part of school I will desperately miss. I am a social creature. I've loved the skills and knowledge I've gained with this degree, but the people have MADE the experience for me.

On to my more trivial thoughts during the night . . . If anyone else was watching the Sing-Off, they will appreciate why I thought about it at 2:30 in the morning. I am TICKED that they kicked Noteworthy off. I am convinced that it was because they were LDS and not wearing little negligees on stage. The judges had nothing negative to say about the groups before that had pitch problems. Then they railed on the BYU girls who sounded SO much better than the other groups I heard. Discrimination. Hmph! It was definitely something worthy of losing sleep over. ;)

I think I had other trivial thoughts, but they are eluding me right now. And they were trivial, so probably not that important to blog about.

A Confession.....

So, I'm pretty into Glee. Enough into it that I've seen all the episodes and really want the soundtrack. Embarrassed? You bet. Enough to stop watching? Not a chance. I got caught in the MPH lab the other day catching up on an episode that I missed and endured the snickers with grace. For those of you who haven't seen the show, it's about a show choir (glee club) made up of misfits who find a place to belong in the club, and happen to all already be professional-quality singers. The New York Times called it "blissfully unoriginal in a witty, imaginative way." I couldn't agree more. Fox ran the pilot last year after the American Idol finale, and while I did not see it then, I heard about it and watched the pilot online a week later. I was hooked. It plays on my past. Was I ever in a show choir? No comment. Did I go on tour with said show choir? No comment. Did I once dream of being in a boy band? Again, no comment. A few years ago I was in the BYU Student Service Association and worked with the clubs. Our whole mission was finding places of belonging for students, especially those who felt marginalized. I remember that BYUSA clubs once got an email from a girl's dad who told us how much the Tall Club had helped his vertically gifted daughter to find a strong network of friends (and dates). The show's got me on too many levels. So, I've watched the show struggle to find itself through the pitfalls of plots surrounding teenagers, but the last 3-4 shows have been much more impressive (and have allowed me to skip a lot fewer parts). I'm hoping Glee stays on the right track.

Seeing with the Heart

I just finished watching the leaders of the LDS Church give their annual Christmas Devotional. I was impressed with the remarks by President Dieter F Uctdorf. He quoted a phrase from The Little Prince. A fox tells the Little Prince "here's my secret, it is very simple. One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes." He then spoke about how most of the people who lived in Jerusalem during the time of Christ could not see Him for who He was. Reflecting upon his words, it seemed unfathomable that so many people could walk among the Savior and His Disciples and not know who He was. The people in Jerusalem had been waiting for their Savior for centuries, and yet most of them missed him. My thoughts quickly turned to the story of Christ's birth in Luke. When Mary and Joseph went to the inn, Luke writes that "there was no room for them in the inn." The phrase "for them" stood out to me. I've always pictured the inns at Bethlehem as being filled to capacity, with no room for anyone. That may be true, but what if it wasn't? What if there was just no room for a poor couple and their donkey? Maybe the inn keepers were embarrassed to have such a couple at their inn, or maybe they could see that Mary was about to give birth and didn't want the trouble.

For the past hour since President Uctdorf's talk was given, I've been contemplating about the realities that I am unable to see. Do I ever neglect my family because a pressing task takes priority in the moment? Have I formed incorrect judgments about the character of my associates and missed their goodness? Are opportunities to serve the truly great presented to me, only for me to ignore them or consider them unworthy of my time?

This then led me to think of the book Blink (which I recently read). In the book, the author relates an experience where someone tried to sell a counterfeit of a type of statue called a kouros to the J Paul Getty museum in LA. The statue looked perfect and all of the tests that were performed on the statue led the experts to believe that the statue was real. There were a couple of experts, however, who felt that the statue was a fake. They couldn't explain how it was a fake, but they just knew, even though everything that their eyes saw told them that it was real. In the end, they were right. It was a fake.

So, I've set a new goal for the Christmas season. It is to see with the heart. Those words look corny on the page, but their intent is not shallow. On December 25 I want to be able to tell MaryAnne that I now realize a truth that I previously was oblivious to. I have no idea what it will be (hence the current state of oblivion), but I am anxious to find it.

A Few of My Favorite Things

As I was driving home from Salt Lake on Thursday night, Annie was crying in the backseat. She HATES to be alone, but she usually falls asleep pretty quickly in the car. I kept waiting for that magical sleeping moment to come and it kept not coming. Finally, I reached back to let her hold my hand. Almost instantaneously she calmed down, and in a few minutes she was soundly asleep. However, right before she fell asleep, she did something that is SO endearing to me: She squeezed my hand about three times in a row. I loved it! It was such a sublimely happy moment. I think I loved it so much because I have a sister who reaches out to squeeze people's hands when she is feeling a large amount of love for them. I'm certain that this is a gene and that Annie knew she was letting me know that she loves me. That short little moment got me thinking about how I need to be better at recording some of the wonderful and cute things that Annie does at this stage (8 1/2 months). So here is a list of a "few of my favorite things".

1. Hand squeezes

2. Putting her pacifier in upside down - I love that 60% of the time when she puts it in her mouth it ends up upside down. I'm pretty certain she prefers it that way. It's so cute.

3. Waving - this is her latest trick. She has three purposes for her waves. She waves to drum up attention when she feels like people are ignoring her. She waves when she knows it's time to perform. And she waves when she is excited. I might consider adding a fourth - I think she sort of knows to wave hello and goodbye.

4. Rolling to get places. She cannot crawl yet, which thrills me, but she can roll. She rolls across rooms, but I don't think she knows she has that ability yet. She will see something two feet out of her reach and know that she can get there by rolling. Adding up all her two feet segments, she moves quite far.

5. Her love of food. She gets exceptionally excited about sweet foods. I fed her Hawaiian Delight the other night and she loved it. I'd been giving her yucky oatmeal and she was doing just fine with it, but then I started in on the banana pineapple mix and she went crazy. She panted and moved her whole body up and down, begging for more. I've really only seen her react like this for one other food - peach cobbler.

There are several more, but this list is a start. Brad and I love Annie so much! She lights up our lives!

I PASSED!

I haven't updated our blog in a long time and we've had some fairly major events happen, so I thought I'd post a quick synopsis.

1. Brad's been accepted to a few more medical schools and we are thinking that we will probably be moving to Rochester, NY for med school. He also had a great interview at Duke, so if he gets accepted there, we may reconsider. However, Duke doesn't let anyone know until March and even if he gets in there, we'll have to pray about it. So for now, we are getting SUPER excited about Upstate New York.

2. Annie had her first Halloween. She was the cutest flower anyone had ever seen. Brad and I were Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. This picture doesn't show off quite how much we looked like the characters, but the in the picture that did showcase the costumes Annie is looking off in the distance.

3. I presented at my first conference. The American Public Health Association held its annual conference in Philadelphia this year, so Brad, Annie, and I trekked across the country to the city of brotherly love. It was a fantastically fun trip. Annie was a peach on the airplane (slept almost the whole time of every flight) and at the conference. We bonded with my cohort, all of whom I love so much. And we caught up with a couple of friends that we hadn't seen in a really long time. I sort of laughed after the poster presentation because I only talked to one person about our work. Presenting at conferences and publishing papers are the sorts of things that pad resumes for future applications and yet it was not really a big deal. We tend to spend a lot of time padding our resumes and it seems like those things are in no way the most important things in life. But there's no spot on the resume to put that you spent time with your family or friends.

4. I passed my defense!!! I know I'm not going to fail my classes this semester, which means I really will graduate with my masters degree in December! Brad and I are both SO excited! Annie would be too if she could understand that it meant she'll get more bonding time with me.

Life has been really good and really busy and will probably continue to be that way through the end of the semester, so forgive me if I don't post again anytime too soon.

Deep in the Heart of Texas . . .

We found out today that Brad was admitted into UT San Antonio for medical school!!! We are SO excited!!! During this whole application process he has told me over and over that he just wants to be admitted; he'd be excited if just gets to be a doctor. Now that dream is coming true. Welcome to the medical world, (future) Dr. Bradley D. Hunter.

Wall of Shame

Today I blew it and this post is my attempt to do penance for my mistake.

Brad and I have talked for a couple of weeks about how he needs a haircut before he goes to his next med school interview. We timed it very strategically - he couldn't have one last week before the U's interview because we didn't want him to look quite so much like the typical freshly returned missionary from BYU. But he has an interview this weekend at the Medical College of Wisconsin (near Chicago - if he gets in there, everyone should come visit us) and we wanted a freshly cut look for that interview. (This is a great place to look like a typical BYU student because they love BYU students there.) So this morning we set out to give him a haircut.

Normally I start each haircut by doing his whole head with a #8 clipper, so I put that on and then realized I forgot to oil the blade. I took the clipper off, oiled it, and without thinking started cutting with no clipper on at all! I did one cut, saw it, and fell to pieces. I proceeded to cry for about the next hour. I was certain that I had ruined his interview. I also felt so embarrassed because I knew all of our friends and family would know that I'm the only who spaced the clipper and did that to him. (This post is an attempt to not let him cover for me.)

I am, however, maybe the most fortunate girl ever because I have a husband who immediately laughed it off and comforted me. (Though in the comforting process he listed lots of people we know who've done the same thing and the first couple he listed was some of our friends who got divorced - great comfort.) He was super positive and told me that it was going to help him on his interview. I felt so happy to have married someone who reacted like that instead of getting mad at me for shearing him. It made me think about Elder Wirthlin's final talk (an apostle in the LDS church) where he counseled people that if they would look back and laugh about a situation in later years, why not just laugh about it now? I'm so glad Brad did. Maybe someday soon, I'll be able to laugh about it too.

(Notice the thumbs up)

Solid Foods and Matching Bows

Just recently we've started giving Annie solid foods. For the most part she has really liked them, even the gross oatmeal that tastes like cardboard (Brad thinks it just tastes better than the plastic things she is usually putting in her mouth). But last night I gave her some green beans to try and she HATED them! It really cracked me up. She got this look on her face like I had betrayed her by putting something that awful in her mouth. I got some pictures of it, but they don't quite do her malice justice.

(Annie after the oatmeal)

(Annie after the green beans)

On a different note, I felt artsy for the first time (maybe in my life) yesterday. I tend to fixate on things and recently I've fixated on getting Annie some of those cute flower bows that clip on to the stretchy headbands. But then I went to the mall and saw how much they were. So I decided to make some. I had grandiose plans of buying some of the fake flowers for it, but before I even got to that aisle I found these cute small flowers and decided that if I used those flowers I could make matching bows for the two of us. I went to town on my little project. Here are the results:

Does your child struggle to get things that are out of her reach? . . . Always.

The last time I went in for Annie's check-up the doctor's office asked me to complete a developmental screening questionnaire. One of the questions was "Does your child struggle to get things that are out of her reach?" My choices were always, sometimes, or never. I didn't really know if Annie did that or not. I think I checked "sometimes" and moved on. But since that time either I have paid attention to it more or she's really started doing it more. (I took her in for that appointment a couple of weeks before her 6 month birthday because she is part of a meningococcal disease vaccine study.) I took these pictures of her and the mess I was confronted with when I got out of the shower the other morning. That same day she broke our snack master machine when I had it sitting by her while I was trying to make lunch. She grabbed hold of it (from her Bumbo) and launched it off the counter. I had no idea she would be strong enough to move it. The worst part of it was that she looked SO pleased with herself for making such a loud banging sound.

Despite all these new antics, I told Brad today that 6 months is my favorite stage. I wish Annie could stay 6 months old forever. She is so cute right now! She's super playful with just about everyone she sees (especially if she's just eaten and/or slept). She's doing a lot better at sleeping in her crib at nights. She's learning to wave and loves exploring new hand motions in the process. She doesn't crawl yet. She's just so fun at this stage! I love it!

I don't know if any of you follow this blog because you don't see us very often, but just in case I think I'll give a brief update of our lives right now. We have three classes together this semester, which I was a little worried about (I thought I'd feel bad if Brad were smarter than I was), but it's been great. I still think Brad's the smartest, but I just love being in his group for things. I always think his comments are the best, and it's so fun to spend two full days a week together. I'm still working on finishing up my master's project. Brad has several other classes as well and he's been busy with medical school interviews, which we are so grateful for. The earliest he could possibly hear back from any schools is October 15th, so we're keeping our fingers crossed for an acceptance notification sometime around that day!

Labor Day Happenings

I wrote this a couple of days ago, but kept not posting it because I didn't have any pictures to put with it yet. But now I think if I don't post it right now, I won't do it at all. So sorry that there are no pictures.

We had an eventful Labor Day weekend. We started off the weekend with a quick jaunt down to Lake Powell with my classmates from my program. It was fantastic! We waterskiied, wakeboarded, and surfed - we also had a ton of fun with my classmates. I know it sounds cheesy, but I really do love the people I go to school with. It's been really fun this semester too because Brad is doing his MPH really fast, so he's taking all the second year classes (my year) and all the first year classes. I love that he's really getting to know and become friends with my classmates, independent of me. We took Annie with us, which makes things a little harder (of course), but she did pretty well, so no complaints here. We left Saturday night just in time to hear the last few minutes of the BYU game! Unfortuntately for us, the reception near Lake Powell was poor, so our game had the Mexican hat dance interspersed between plays. Despite the muffled reception is was so fun to listen to. Wow! How 'bout them Cougs! That's a game that will go down in BYU football history.

The next day was my 26 year old birthday. On Mother's Day I had tried to hint around at what I wanted, but Brad didn't pick up on it and I was sort of upset. After that fiasco he told me that I should always just tell him what I really want and then he will be happy to do it for me. So I told him up front that what I wanted for my birthday was a big breakfast (not in bed). Only later, did I realize I'd asked him to do that on fast Sunday. Once I realized this, I told him not to do it because that would just be mean. So he's promised that he'll make it for me later this week. :) We had a dinner that evening with all my family, which was really fun. We had steaks, roasted veggies, bran breadsticks (way yummier than they sound), chicken, homemade peach/raspberry ice cream, lemon cream cake, and chocolate cake. It was delicious!

Today, I accomplished a goal I set probably about 5 years ago - I ran a half marathon! Brad and I have been training for the last couple of months and we finally did it today. We are too cheap to enter into a real race (we thought of a lot of things we would rather do with the $70), so we ran the "Brad and MaryAnne" Half, complete with a water break and a cheering crowd (in the form of my sister and nieces and nephew). We basically did the Provo Half trail. You start up South Fork and then run down to Will's (we had to add a little to that). We felt really good and did it a little faster than we thought we would. We averaged 9:30s. Brad could have gone a lot faster, but I was grateful he stayed with me. Then to top off the day, Brad's parents called and asked if they could take us to lunch at Ruby River for my birthday and my mom wanted to treat us to a movie tonight.

Overall, it's been a great Labor Day/Birthday weekend!

Eating Like Kings

I always feel a little nostalgic when the summer ends because it means so many great things are over. But one of the things I will miss most this year is the fresh fruits and vegetables. We live with my sister and she has a garden and all summer we've been literally reaping the benefits. I LOVE garden tomatoes! All of the kids in my family teased my parents because they always said you shouldn't even call garden tomatoes and store bought tomatoes the same things, so we called the garden ones "gardenatoes". We've been making these paninis with gardenatoes that are to die for - ham, pesto, gouda, and a gardenato. We also made delicious BLTs with the gardenatoes. Just thinking about all these foods is making me hungry. I LOVE the fresh corn on the cob! It's so yummy with just a little bit of salt and pepper (and if I went on a long run a little bit of butter too).

One night when we had a dinner that was almost entirely fresh fruits and veggies, Brad looked at me and said, "We are eating like kings. This is the kind of meal that kings would have had back in the day, and now, as poor college students, we get to eat like Kings." It was such a great thought!

Even though I'm sad for all this good eating to come to an end relatively soon, I'm excited because we've been able to preserve some of our royal food to have later in the year. The other day Brad spent his last day of summer bottling 20 quarts of fresh peaches! We've also made lots of blackberry jam. I think both of these treats will remind me in December of the days when we ate like royalty.

Vacations and Such

My sister's friend emailed her the other day and said, "You haven't blogged in a long time. That can mean one of two things: You are VERY busy or you're pregnant". I'm not pregnant, so you can all conclude that I'm busy.

We've been having lots of fun over the last few weeks. We had a big Hunter reunion in Bear Lake during the 3rd week of July. Brad's family owns property up there, so we go up a few times every summer. We love it there - it's beautiful! His family owns some waverunners that they leave up there, so our trips to Bear Lake are always really fun. I was sort of nervous for this trip though because we've never camped since we had Annie. My fears were relieved when we found out that since it was a large Hunter reunion Grandma and Grandpa Hunter had booked theLaketown Lodge for us for the week. It was SO nice - it had a theater in the basement, tons of games, and a big kitchen. We had a great time relaxing by the lake and at the lodge.

Right after we got home from Bear Lake we packed up and went to Glacier with the Winder side of my family. My family goes to Glacier every couple of years. It really is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It's on the border of Montana and Canada. We left, in true Winder fashion, by five am. Annie was a champ on both of the 11 hour car trips. She slept until about 10 each time and was mostly pleasant the rest of the drive.

My Grandpa Winder loves to hike and he instilled that in his children and grandchildren, so when we vacation that's what we do. We stayed in rustic cabins right on the shore of Lake McDonaldand then hiked almost every day. Annie did pretty well in the Baby Bjorn, all things considered.

We loved every minute of both trips!

The last picture is of Annie and her cousin Grace who is almost the exact same age. My sister-in-law came down to pick blackberries the other day and we made blackberry jam. There is something so satisfying to me about eating jam that I made. Maybe if I were more domestic I would feel that satisfaction a little more frequently . . .

The Glorious 4th Hath Arrived and Past

My grandpa Winder wakes up every 4th of July and says, "The glorious 4th hath arrived at last" and concludes the day with "The glorious 4th hath arrived and past". I meant to post about our 4th a little while ago, but I'm just getting to it tonight; thus, the glorious 4th hath arrived and past.

I love the 4th of July! I love all the celebrations; I love the BBQs; I love the parades; and I love the fireworks! Some of these events I'm not sure exactly why I love them. I can't figure out what is so fun about sitting in a crowd of people wearing red, white, and blue and watching other people walk by, yet I relish it. On most days of the year I wouldn't touch a hot dog with a ten foot pole, but on the 4th it just feels right to eat a big dog. I'm not exactly sure why I love the celebrations, but I think it must be because I feel extremely patriotic. I love being an American! I was incensed when someone in church the day after the 4th insinuated that America is going to pot because of all this "change". Every year I feel so grateful to be an American. I remember the 4th of July on my mission where we played ultimate frisbee with my zone and we happened to have exactly half Americans and half non-Americans. Every time we scored we compared it to a battle from American history. It is one of my favorite memories of my mission.

This 4th was equally thrilling. We started the day with a beautiful run down Provo Canyon. We went back to my parents and had blueberry muffins, scrambled eggs, and orange juice. Then we went over and walked the parade route, but going the opposite way. This was ideal for watching both the parade and the people at the parade (I think the spectacle created by the people is more entertaining than the parade itself). Later in the day we went to my grandma's for a BBQ where I had my yearly hot dog. It was a fantastic day.

The fun continued the next day when we went to Brad's parents after church for another BBQ with his family. We celebrated again a little later in the week by taking Annie for her first swim ever. She was festive in her red, white, and blue swimsuit!

By the end of the day, Annie was super tired out by all the activities. One of the pictures below shows her sacked out on my lap with her arms up. Whenever she sleeps with her arms up it means she is really out. Brad humored me the day after the 4th and wore his blue suit with a red tie for our patriotic family picture. The other picture shows how swimming wore Annie out (she was asleep before we left our neighbor's property).

Flashback Story

Howdy all,

MaryAnne feels a much stronger emotional connection to blogging than I do, but I may post from time to time as a guest writer. MaryAnne wanted me to post about our train excursion over the China National Holiday (first week in October) 2007. We had a week off of school, and were looking to go somewhere to escape the melting heat of Nanjing (they don't call it one of China's 4 ovens for nothing). MaryAnne served her mission in Sydney, and at the end of her mission she trained a sister missionary from Chengdu, which is located in the Sichuan province. I just looked it up on the train schedule, and it's about 1275 miles from Nanjing, which is the equivalent of taking a train from Salt Lake City to Dallas. In a car, it takes about 18 hours to make the trip; but, on a China train, it takes 36 hours. As fun as it is to ride on top of a cot where you can't sit up for 1 1/2 days (see picture below), we decided to break up the trip with a day and a half stop in Xi'an (home of the terra cotta warriors).

In China, you can't buy train tickets more than 10 days in advance (unless you have friends in government positions. I once tried to order some tickets 10 days in advance for a bullet train only to find out that the train had been reserved for people much redder than me). I went to the local store that sold tickets and was told that I could buy tickets for the first leg of the journey to Xi'an, but that I would have to buy tickets in Xi'an for the final leg to Chengdu. Knowing that the ENTIRE population, 1.6 billion, gets the week off, I was scared about being Shanghaied (pun intended) in Xi'an with sold-out trains. I shared my feelings of anxiety with one of my Chinese classmates who told me that if I went to the train station, I could buy tickets for any station in China. However, there were now only 2 days before we left for Xi'an.

I rocked up to the station later that night (about 10:00 PM) and had to stand in line for over an hour to get to the ticket window (more on Chinese horizontally forming lines in another post). I found out that all trains were sold out for the day after we arrived in Xi'an, but we could get on a train at 6:00 PM for the day we arrived. That meant we'd have about 8 hours in Xi'an. We'd lose our money for the hotel room we'd booked, but that was only $10, so I purchased the tickets. Whenever we purchased overnight train tickets, we'd buy "hard sleeper" tickets which meant that we sat/slept/ate/you name it on bunks stacked 3 high in groups of 2. It's a good way to travel and half the price of the "soft sleeper" beds which are just as hard but have a door you can close. Either way, we were confronted with strangers, so we usually went the cheap route. I felt relieved that not all tickets were sold out and noticed that the tickets were about $20 less than I thought they'd be. I was stoked. Then I looked at the ticket and noticed that I had purchased a "hard seat" instead of a hard sleeper. Picture the comfort of the wood benches in the tabernacle. That is what I'd just bought. I quickly jumped in the ticket exhange line and found that all hard sleepers were sold out. Crap.

This is a picture taken from my first train ride in China. I am located in the "hard seat" section with a "standing" ticket. This is not a picture of people getting on or off the train. This is a picture 2 hours into my 5 hour ride from Shanghai to Nanjing. I vowed I'd never ride in that section of the train again. Well, it was China: 1, Brad and MaryAnne: 0. We decided to not think about it and just enjoy the overnight beds on our way to Xi'an. We loved Xi'an. It is thousands of years old and the terra cotta warriors were amazing. MaryAnne got sick and the hotel let us make the best use of our 10 bucks and stay there for 2 hours. I had my first experience running through the rainy streets of Xi'an looking for remedies for MaryAnne's sickness and MaryAnne had her first experience using a squatter toilet. Then came the long walk to the train station to wait for our one-way ticket to hell. Here is a copy of the email I sent home once we arrived in Chengdu at Sister Yin's house.

Hello Mom and Dad!

We are in Chengdu and being treated like royalty. However, the road here was a bit of different story. We couldn't get sleeper car tickets because they were all sold out (the entire country has the next 7 days off and the trains are going nuts). We do have sleeper car tickets for the way back, and we had sleepers from Nanjing to Xi'an. But, from Xi'an to Chengdu, we had to buy "hard seat" tickets. The bright side was that the were more than half the price of the sleeper car trains, and we soon found out why.

Last night was definitely one of the worst three nights of my life. I've read horror story after horror story on the internet about luggage being stolen in the "hard seat" cars, and so I didn't want to take an Ambien and have us both knocked out cold waiting to be ripped off. So, I thought I'd catch some Z's now and then during the trip. Let me paint the scenario of the evening.

Imagine, if you will, a cattle car. Cowboys, on horseback, are working their cattle prods on the herd, forcing them into the corral. You now know how we entered the train station, the platform, and then the train. The goal was not to get sucked into the middle and squished on all sides by people who hadn't showered in days. Once we go on the train, we sat three in a row, with three people opposite us. Knees were touching. Imagine how much leg room you get on an airplane, and then divide that by two people facing each other. Since we are fat by Chinese standards, we could barely squish with a random Chinese dude into the space allotted us. Now, coming out of the wall is a small table which makes it nearly impossible to lie down without hitting your head on it. So, that option was out. I was in the middle with MaryAnne against the wall with a window seat (we originally weren't sitting together, and we tricked a student into trading with us and sitting next to a mom who draped her kid's dirty legs over first MaryAnne's body, and then over the new kid's. Also, kids in China until they are about 5 wear a one piece outfit with bum flaps in the back that are often open, so imagine that draped across your legs and having MaryAnne's aversion to "germs"), and a random Chinese middle-aged man on my right. In front of me are two really dirty gunny-sack-packing farmers who's shirts were handwashed in grime, and then across from MaryAnne is a student who's already been on the train over 36 hours.

Next, you've got my friend, here after dubbed Mr. Entitled, who was sleeping in my seat when we got on the train. I had to wake him up and he got upset with me wondering why I woke him up. Well, we bought seats and there was no way I was going to stand for 19 hours. He then proceeded to pull out his blanket and sleep in the aisle. Every time the snack cart came though, he refused to move and made them try to work around him. Also, muddy feet have been all over the aisle, and people are constantly spitting in the aisle (so much that it is constantly slippery). If that wasn't gross enough, our other friend, who we called "grossest man alive" crawls underneath the seat in front of us and begins to sleep. Every time I tried to stretch my legs out of the sitting straight up position, he would grab my feet and throw them back at me. He had not showered for a long time and it was apparent both visually and olifactorily. It is "illegal" to smoke in the train car, and it is only allowed in the space between cars, but that doesn't stop almost 20 percent of the passengers from lighting up sometime during the night without leaving their seat.

I had to convince MaryAnne to take an Ambien, but she finally did, and then the circus began. While we are sitting, there are close to 40 people in the aisle who have "stand-only" tickets who are hovering all over us. It's hot, the air conditioning has gone out and the train keeps stopping every hour for about 30-45 minutes and no one knows or cares why. I went to go see if we could upgrade our tickets to the sleeper car, but since it is a national holiday this week, we were told there would be no upgrades allowed all week. I came back and tried to get at least a little sleep between stops, and then inspect our luggage while people were getting on and off the train.

At first, the main thing keeping me from sleeping was the card game going on directly in front of me. There were 6 active players, who were drinking and having a great time. There were also about 10-15 observers who hovered around the game, and therefore around me. The card game was in the row in front of our row (each row has 6 people facing each other on one side, and 4 people facing each other on the other side). The card game started at 10:00 and didn't end until after 2:00 AM. Then, Mr. Entitled and grossest man alive were snoring up a storm beneath me. The guy in front of me kept spitting on the floor (and therefore my feet) and wiping it around the floor with his shoe. He kept touching all parts of his body, and then starting rummaging through the fruit in his gunny sack. He offered me one of his pears, which was a nice gesture, but made me want to hurl. He wouldn't take no for an answer, and placed in my hand. I immediately put it on the table, and luckily, he ate it the next morning. Soon, the floor was so wet with his spit and his buddy's spit who sat next to him, that the floor was slippery and black.

Next, his spitting partner wanted to eat. He dove into a plastic garbage bag full of assorted duck and chicken parts which were smothered in hot sauce. My favorite were the duck necks which he nibbled and then slurped in his mouth before spitting out the esophogus on the table in front of me. He was also leaning over to eat which put his mouth 8 inches from my face. He ate stomach and intestine, and the smell was fantastic. He washed it all down with some strong alcohol which turned off any desire I had for food. After a few floor spits himself, he turned over and went to sleep. His legs were facing towards me, while the student across from MaryAnne had his legs turned towards me from the other side, leaving me only able to sit straight up or risk the wrath of the crazy hands of grossest man alive. I opted for sitting straight up.

The mothers sitting behind me missed the cues from their kids and tried to make their way to the squatter with feces coming out of the bum flaps of the one pieces. That added to both the visual and aromatic collage that I was receiving during the night. Did they turn the lights down at all during the night? You bet they didn't. I told myself that if I could make it to 6 AM, no matter what I'd run to the dinner car for some breakfast and space. Luckily, Mars woke up at about 5:45, which made the morning more bareable. I did sleep for about 1.5 hours from about 7:30 to 9:00 which was a big help. The train stayed pretty crowded and was due to arrive in Chengdu at 12:35, but due to all the random stops on the tracks actually arrived after 3:30. Lesson to be learned? Do not take the hard seat car if you are going to be on the train over 5 hours, and especially 19 hours. Either wait a few days for better tickets, or fork out the dough and fly if you have it. It was an experience Mars and I both don't want to relive. I actually feel pretty good now that I've eaten a great meal (Sister Yin's mom is a fantastic cook), taken a hot shower and brushed my teeth. I don't hate life or the world, but I did while I was on the train. I was figuring out ways to break the window and escape when the train stopped, or ways to put a hole in the wall where people could blow their cigarette smoke. Life is good now. I hope what I wrote recreated the trip for you, because it was quite unbelievable. Wow. Never again, but a great story now that it's over. :)

That took too long to write, and now MaryAnne is taking a nap. She said she will write her story to you after we get back from dinner. We love you and miss you! We are safe and pampered here by Sister Yin's family. Talk to you soon!

- Brad and Mars

This place was MUCH nicer than the train. Home, sweet home. Needless to say, we elected to bite the bullet and take the 36 hour ride back without a stop-over, but we did guarantee that we had beds for the whole ride. If you ever go to China, shoot us a line before you decide to take a train. We recommend it, but only if you do it right.

Father's Day . . . Whose day is it anyway?

(I should mention at the beginning that this is a cheesy post!)

This Father's Day I have been feeling so grateful for the wonderful men in my life! We got to celebrate with my dad and brothers last night, my grandpa this afternoon, and Brad's dad this evening. I love them all so much! They have all had such a positive influence on me.

When I got home from getting Brad some last minute gummies for Father's Day, I found a spotless house and a gift from Brad on the floor for me. I was astounded. Not too many women have husbands who will do that, particularly on a day when we are supposed to be celebrating them. I called my mom on the way to tell her about what Brad had done for me, she asked, "Whose day is it anyway?"

But Brad isn't just good to me on holidays. I am in the middle of my internship for my for masters program. (I love it - I am working on a study for the state's early intervention program about autism screeners.) This requires me to work full time, which means that Brad has taken on the role of full-time father. He does a wonderful job with this! It makes me so happy to see the close relationship he is developing with Annie. Despite being busy taking care of Annie, he still found time to apply to medical school (no small feat - he applied to 24 schools), take a course for his masters degree, and research for the Utah Labor Comission. He is amazing! I love him!

No Meg Ryan

I've wanted to write on our blog for a long time, but each time I considered it, I felt anxious.  Every blog I read sounds like quotes from Meg Ryan's character, Kathryn Kelly, in You've Got Mail.  I love that style, but I'm not very good at writing like that--I don't think in nostalgic phrases.  If you all keep your expectations low and realize that I'm no Meg Ryan, I promise to start writing on our blog. 

The real reason I needed to begin our blog is because several friends have told me they do not believe that we have a baby.  They saw my growing belly, but then I came back to school and the belly was gone, but due to two extremely kind grandmothers, there was no baby with me.  So world, here she is. Susanna Hunter (Annie) came into the world on March 12, 2009 at 7:04 pm.  She was 7 lbs. 6 oz. and 20 inches long.  We think she is the greatest!