Tepan-yucky

The fact of the matter is, if our trip had been even 2 weeks earlier I would not have felt up to going. I am having many more good days now though sites and smells still effect me and I am pretty careful about when and what I eat to keep from getting sick. The Taiwanese people are a very kind people for the most part and gift giving seems to be a big part of their culture. Ever since Nathan started working with people from there -clear back before Kennedy was born he would bring home gifts for me- and occasionally even our children, from their Taiwan partners or clients. In January we received a package out of the blue from the girlfriend of someone Nathan had worked with. It was an outfit for Kenna and Kohen and a purse for Aly and some other thoughtful things. A very sweet gesture. 

Anyway when people that Nathan works with found out his wife was coming with him this trip they all began inviting me to go to their business dinners with them. I apologized sincerely to Nathan but told him there was no way my stomach was up to the task of eating unfamiliar foods and if I don't eat the food offense could very easily be taken. Nathan was able to get me out of everything except one lunch. The people responsible for our recent package insisted on taking us out to lunch to a Tepanyaki style place. I dreaded it all week.  

Things got off to a bad start when I was already hungry and we arrived at the restaurant where reservations had been made and imagine that, they had no record of it and all 3 tables were being used by bigger parties than ours, obviously we'd been bumped. We proceeded to wait for more than an hour while I grew closer and closer to being sick. When we were finally seated the food I had waited so long for proved to be one hideous dish after another. Poor Nathan, trying to protect me would whisper frantically under his breath to me, "Do Not Eat That! I'm telling you, if I can't eat it you can't!" Good thing the cooking was loud or we'd never have gotten away with that. 

As the dishes grew weirder and kept coming one after another endlessly- so much yucky food!- Nathan's whisperings became more desperate, "I'm so sorry honey!...You can have whatever you want for dinner!...Just don't look at it!" One of the dishes was Cod and might have been okay had it not been swimming in what looked like blood water. After about 6 gross courses they brought out the lobster and threw them on the stove. Um, they totally started moving involuntarily all over the place. It was the most stomach turning part of the lunch. Nathan took some video though they had slowed to about half the initial movement, it's about 20 seconds and it's...yuck. It's funny though at the end it shows our hosts saying hi and totally oblivious to the torture they were putting me through.

By the end of the bazillion course meal Nathan and I were having a hard time keeping a straight face about things. This was the only picture I let him take of me because I was afraid that our hosts would see I was being sarcastic and be offended. Though I don't know how they could've missed that I couldn't choke down hardly any of it, I guess I did get pretty good with the earnest pushing of food around my plate. I'd like to say this lunch proves just how much I love my husband. I was sick to my stomach the rest of the day and I would only endure an afternoon like that for him. 

#4 Makes First Appearance!

While in Taiwan I went to the playgroup of Mom's from our church ward- to be and it was good to hear opinions on life in Taiwan and hear about some of their experiences giving birth there. Overall Taiwan is about 20 years behind the times as far as birthing goes, except for C-sections which they are all over and have a high rate of. I was nervous but learned that for ex-pats that isn't the case. The girls in the ward have all used a Western trained doctor and had good experiences with her. 

So since I will be about 5-6 weeks away from having baby #4 when we move we thought it might be wise to meet this Dr. Ling. She was great, talkative and assuring, except the part where she repeatedly said at the end we would check often and see whether or not I needed to be induced (after Aly, I'd have to give that a NO WAY ummm, no thanks) but other than that it was positive.

Especially the part where she did an ultrasound! Yay! And I am excited to announce- especially on behalf of Kohen- that the score is now even, 2 girls, 2 boys! We are expecting our second little boy around the second week of September. We really weren't very surprised, I'd thought it was a boy all along and after being correct 3 times before, Nathan knows better than to question me :) It was sweet, when we gathered the kids yesterday to tell them we took the last vote of what each thought we were having. Kohen held firm on a brother. Kenna, and therefore Aly believed it was a girl. When we revealed it was a boy there was a collective cheer and then Kennedy shouts "I just knew it was a boy!" which I thought was funny considering her vote to the contrary .5 seconds before.

So the next question is always, do we have a name? Well, no not really but the fact of the matter is you probably won't like what we pick anyway- at least initially-  so should I really share??? I dunno, we'll see. We're certainly taking suggestions. hint hint.  

House Hunting

So yes, supposedly (picture me giving you a slight roll of the eye) we are moving to Taiwan this summer. I say "supposedly" because within those quotes is just enough wiggle room for me to squeeze through to one of my favorite places, the Land of Denial. It is a lovely place I like to visit whenever the subject of an international move comes up. Everyone- including myself back before I was in danger of experiencing it first hand- thinks that moving over seas sounds exotic and adventurous and wonderful. True, true and true. But what you don't realize is that much must be given up for the opportunity. What I have come to understand about myself is that when I thought overseas living would be awesome, overseas travel is actually my idea of exotic, adventurous and wonderful. Most of this has to do with having little ones whose lives and education we are responsible for. I guess my point is that overtime I have become used to the inevitability that we were moving overseas largely by trying to understand the very real perks and very real difficulties that come with it.... and a healthy dose of the Dory "just keep swimming" attitude that has always come so naturally to me, ha!

My awesome sisters were up to the task of watching our kids again while I left with Nathan for my first trip ever overseas. I seriously should have taken a picture because you would never believe the condition we left our room in for the girls. Laundry, albeit clean, piled high and strewn everywhere. A product of being home from Boise for about 36 hours before we left again. So Natalie and Ashley are pretty much amazing for even agreeing to walk into that sand trap.  

Having said all that I'm about to get very honest. When people ask how I feel about moving to Asia I give most everyone the same answer about how I am a bit apprehensive but I'm sure we'll adjust and the Taiwan American School is amazing and I might even throw in how having a maid is cheap and very standard in Taiwan. But this is me we are talking about. As much as I long to be that woman who when offered this experience doesn't bat an eye and excitedly replies, "let's do this!" and "when can we leave!?"- I am not nor will I ever be that woman. Instead I worry. I worry about driving (I can now report the driving here is like NY cab drivers but on crack) I worry about health care (and that would be a yes, I'm planning on having this baby in Taiwan. Somebody slap me.) I worry about where I will get food to prepare for my family (have I mentioned I'm not a fan of Chinese food?) I worry about being SO far away from family and friends and our DVR- in that order I swear. But thanks to some awesome friends (Allison!) and people I have been put in touch with from Taiwan many of my worries were settled at least partially. 

When Nathan and I left for our trip on Sunday I was excited and looking forward to the experience. Taiwan is sometimes confused with Thailand but Taiwan is actually the Republic of China and they speak Mandarin Chinese. At any rate, I was excited to check this place out. So that makes it a little hard to explain why about 8 hrs into our flight I started bawling. No really, full on sobbing. It started out as just a little teary and I was trying to pull myself together but instead I just lost it. I was trying to be discreet but at some point Nathan realized I was crying (poor guy, he was so confused) and I scared the crud out of him because I was crying so hard I couldn't even speak and so he was imagining something terrible had happened. As my sister explained, I was having one of those, "oh my gosh this is really happening" moments and she's right. Suddenly the reality of moving overseas became a little too real. In that moment I DID NOT WANT TO MOVE. Thankfully though I felt much better after a seriously huge cry. 

I was amazed when on the first leg of the flight Nathan slept and slept and slept. I took a short little nap and then proceeded to read an entire book (A Thousand Splendid Suns, not really a funny ha ha kind of book). During our layover in Japan I started to feel it and by the time we boarded the last leg of our flight I could hardly speak without slurring my words I was so dang tired.  Frankly, I would've blogged days ago but I have been battling jet lag any moment I sit still too long. 

Though pretty much every smell is offensive to my sensitive nose, I have managed pretty well here if I do say so myself. It has really been cool to get to explore a bit of this country. We've spent several days house hunting- hopefully our prayers have been answered and we will find a place before we leave this trip. I have lot's of other details and things that I have found interesting but I'm not really sure if they would be interesting to anyone else so for now I better call it good I think. More later...

Elder Wilcox Returns!!!

So Tuesday night was the big night. After 2 years in Taiwan my little brother was coming home!! My whole family was excited, the kids helped make posters and were thrilled when the time had finally come. Unfortunately Justin's flight didn't get in until after 11pm and I swear those last few hours took their sweet time passing! But finally........

...Elder Wilcox appeared and as far as my immediate family goes, we were all a bit too excited in the moment to do things like, ya know, focus the camera, lol. But you get the idea. 

I was glad we had made the effort to bring the kids-  we hope the night will be a lasting memory for them. That night at my parents house after the kids were down we stayed up until 3am catching up, so brutal come 8am the next morning but so worth it.

Unfortunately Justin only had about 48 hours home before he had to head off to BYUID again which kind of seems like a cruel joke but I was happy to get what I got. It is purely coincidence that Justin served where our family will be moving, but I found myself paying close attention to details that I might not otherwise, things like how people he knew emptied 2 gallons from their de-humidifier daily...oh boy. Anyway, we got together at Ashley and Shayn's the next night, it was great to all be together.

Aly proved to be the entertainment much of the evening, but here she is eating the best dessert ever that is so sinfully good and yet dangerously bad for you, you probably shouldn't eat it unless there is a defibrillator nearby. At any rate, I may have only posted the picture because it brings back yummy memories.

The picture below- there are about 15 versions of it (none of which do I look any better than that, yikes! Would you believe me if I swore I wasn't feeling so good?) but we were all laughing so hard trying to get a pic and Aly was hamming it up- she has learned from her Aunties how to work the camera!

The Menfolk

I have no idea why everything is underlined now...must be because blogger feels what I am typing is that important. Anyway, Justin seems to be transitioning very well, granted there has hardly been time for anything else. I was impressed when day 2 his hair had started the slow transition from the Missionary hair do, thought for sure that was gonna take some time to kick :) I can't think of any way that isn't cheesy to end this post. Well, it is what it is. I love my brother and I am thrilled to have him home!

More Easter Than You Ever Wanted

This year we went to Boise for our spring break which coincided with Easter and my brother coming home from his 2 year mission in Taiwan so there was a lot we conveniently plopped ourselves in the middle of. This is the Easter montage- coloring eggs at home before we left, then on Saturday we headed over to the Jensen Easter bash and though 2 families/8 cousins were missing we were still able to have a great -though quieter- time.  

After the egg hunt we broke out the bubbles and I have to give my SIL Amber a shout out for most of these pictures, they turned out great and I had to snag 'em. With everyone blowing bubbles the backyard was quickly filled with inexplicably magical iridescent spheres (thank you for indulging me with that superfluous description... now I'm just being pedantic). 


Was it me or was pretty much everyone dressing their darlings in clothes from The Children's Place this Easter? What can I say, it was the cutest thing I could find short notice when I began to be able to peel myself off of the couch sometime between late March early April.
And I had to add these pics because growing up at my Gma Nona's house we would do this and it was so fun. Each basket is attached to a large spool of wrapping ribbon which is then unraveled all over the backyard (traditionally by the men folk) and then each child gets their spool and begins following and winding, racing to be the first to reach their Easter basket, not sure that was a very good description. At any rate, the more participants the more ribbons all over so just know that with only 3 it wasn't as impressive as it could be. It's pretty cool when a backyard is absolutely covered in bright ribbon all over.


And all this is still not including the Easter Bunnies visit Saturday morning or hearing the Easter story from our children after Sunday school, Easter dinner and on and on. Easter 2009... AWESOME. 

A hundred and a hundred!

I am still in Boise- and obviously lot's has been going but while I have just a second I have to report that Aly has had potty training success!!!! Starting conference weekend when Nathan was available we began with Aly. It took all week but by Thursday when we flew to Boise and had a 2 hour delay at the airport -ugh- she did great. Nathan and I were panic stricken when on our flight we went to take Aly to the restroom and she flat out REFUSED to use that "stinky" potty that "has no water in it!" But defying the odds she made it through all of our travels dry as can be. This is especially impressive when we were previously taking her to the restroom every half hour. Let me just share one thing. The other two did not stay dry immediately at night when they were training, but Aly sleeps 12 hour nights and will be completely dry in the morning! I CAN'T EVEN DO THAT!!!!! It is super cute (to Aly's parents anyway) when she opens the flood gates in the morning after those 12 hours and she excitedly shouts "A hundred and a hundred!!!" There certainly is a lot- I have serious bladder envy.
So here is the deal, we have been in Boise on our spring break and my brother Justin came home from his 2 yr mission to Taiwan for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints this week which was amazing!!! I will be able to blog properly about it when I get home to my laptop, Nathan's is killing me. For now though, let's follow Aly's example as she would demand we "BE EXCITED" when she would successfully use the potty. That or, "CLAP FOR ALY!!!"- which at this point I feel is well deserved. That's my girl.

Let's Go With "Better Late Than Never"

What. So St. Patrick's day was almost a month ago. The fact that I'm blogging about it now should give you a pretty good idea of how I was feeling and then how the whole fam was feeling. Truth be told I couldn't skip this because I need a pat on the back for the Green and Shamrock filled lunch I made Kennedy and her friend Alex who came over. I was NOT feeling well that day but I pulled off a little lunch that had the girls tickled so it was almost worth the trouble.  

Next we had my 29th Birthday. Again, I was feeling like crud but Nathan had the children so excited about my birthday. On the Monday before they all "went to the park" but really went to Target so they could pick out Birthday decorations (as told by the Tinkerbell/Spiderman adornments). When they got home they were all telling me how on Wednesday (my B-day) I should take an extra long nap, "like past when Dad gets home"...in the hopes that they could then decorate and surprise me. 

Then the morning of my Birthday Nathan got up early with Kenna and Kohen and made me breakfast in bed which I only wish I could've eaten more of, fruit and freshly made coffee cake and Bran flakes (cuz let's not forget I'm popping Zofran like candy and if you've ever taken it you know why the bran is highly necessary). To see them so excited to bring it to me though was the real gift. Kennedy was in charge of pictures that evening and seeing as how I looked about like how I felt, I figured this one was good enough.

Easily my favorite gifts were the cards that Nathan let each child pick out for me. Kennedy and Kohen could hardly wait for me to see what they had chosen for me/get to use the paper doll and/or Knight in shining armor stickers that came with the cards. It was too funny.

Then we had Aly's card which about brought tears to my eyes because Nathan said she was adamant about this one. And when I opened it she frantically pointed to the little girl and then the mom, "Me! You! Me!"  

I'm not sure I ever would have thought cards from a 6, 4, and 2 year old could mean so much.