My Break

Last week, I only had to work for two days because of the TESOL conference. However, John had to go to school the whole time. So I spent my little break AT HOME!! When can we have breaks together? I wonder if that'll ever happen.

Anyway I'm a Korean drama addict. It's silly but when I need to relax, I would watch those. They're very mellow and there's no tension, even though I would cry like a baby with the characters. Finally John said, "honey you just spent a whole day crying. Are you having fun?" "Unhuh," I answered as I blew my nose. It was fun :-)

Anyway with all the Korean dramas, I had craving for Korean food. So we went to Samhawk. I had some kimchi soup and John had Beef Bulgogi.
Kimchi repels John :-)

We have cookies coming our of our ears!!
We had Sunday dinner at the Coles. Valen is getting so cute and handsome...My favorite nephew ever!

My Saturday

John has to go to the boy scout POW WOW for the whole morning, and then go work on his research data on campus. So I was left alone, on a Saturday!! But I found ways to entertain myself. First, some Chinese friends came over and brought me some home-made beef jerky. It was yummy. Then my cousin came over and we made a great Chinese lunch. We also baked lemon garlic chicken and cinnamon rolls. I finally made peace with cinnamon rolls today. They turned out okay.
Then Megan and I went to the mall and had a blast. I love shopping and I've had a hard time finding a shopping partner before my cousin came over. Now I actually go shopping with someone who enjoys it. Five hours just fly by when you are having fun.
Nordstrom invited some hair-stylist to give customers free hair-dos. So I got my hair curled :-)

Man, my hair's getting long :-)
It was a great Saturday. And the good news is John also made big progress with his data :-)

Happy White Valentine!

Saturdays always fly by so fast. I wish there were at least two!Good news is the week after next, I'll have a 4-day weekend because of TESOL conference!!!!!!!

So according to Asian tradition, we celebrate two valentines. (Yeah I know. One is already over-rated! Two?!) So Feb 14 is a day where girls do everything to make boys feel loved and March 14th, the white Valentine, is when the boys return the love :-) However, in the Carr family, we switched the days.
Wearing Valentine shirts are popular in China. So on Feb 14th, John treated me like a princess. He made me breakfast in bed, gave me some nice gifts, cooked me a candlelit dinner, and took me to a Jazz synthesis :-)

Yesterday, March 14th was the day I have to return the valentine love. I made him a sausage-egg breakfast, sewed him a little gift, and made him a Mexican-Chinese dinner :-) I went to Macey's cooking class and learnt how to make the Cafe-Rio sweet pork meal. I replaced the sweet pork with low-fat chicken kabob. There's no way I can make a meal with three cups of sugar in it.
What the heck is this? Nice lining though...Ahh it's a keyboard duster John's always wanted. Too big though. Oh well!I sewed a couple hours for that little thing...

truth, hope, happiness

Over the weekend, I attended the funeral service of sister Snow. The Snows are one of the couples I got to know from China. They were with the BYU China Teacher Program.

This is the first American funeral I've been to. I learned a lot about an LDS funeral. The impression I got from the service can be summarized in two words: hope and happiness. It is completely different from a Chinese funeral, which is characterized by despair and sorrow.

It's amazing how much faith a person can gain from knowing the truth. And faith brings with it hope and happiness. I grew up with my grandma (She lived with us for several years to help take care of me when my dad went up the West to work during the Depression.) and we developed this special bonding. We're kindred spirit if you may. I love her more than anyone else in this world(except John. I love John just as much!). It always breaks my heart to think that she may be gone someday. After she celebrated her 90th birthday, my mom started to prepare me for the fact that grandma might leave us someday. Every time she would talk about it, I would cry. I got so scared of the fact that I could never see her again.

One time I relayed my fear to one of the BYU teachers in China. She told me about the eternal plan of salvation and told me to have faith that I'd see my grandma again someday. I chose to believe her without knowing how it would work. I just remember the peace and comfort I got from that little piece of hope. I also remembered the curiosity I had about the Gospel and the frustration I had not being able to find out the truth. I would type in "Mormon" "LDS" on the itnernet and everything would be blocked.

When I came to BYU, I started going to church with my roommates. They never even questioned that I might not be a member until one day in Sacrament meeting, I asked them what a "Patriarcal Blessing" was. They sent me to Gospel Principles and I was baptized in three months. I can still feel the excitement I felt when the missionaries finally put the Gospel puzzle together for me. I called my mom one night and told her I was no longer afraid of grandma leaving us because I knew I'd see her again.
Grandma is the most amazing lady I've ever known. She was widowed when her 6th child was only 6 years old. She raised all of them by herself on her two tiny little bound feet. She's highly respected in my community for her strength, wisdom, charity, and hard-work. I know where she'll be when she passes on. If I want to be with her again, all I need to do is to be as good as she.Truth leads to hope, which leads to happiness. I'm so happy that I know the truthfulness of this Gospel. I love it with all my heart!

My Baking Failure

I don't know why but baking has been against me lately. I think it's because John said he's not gonna eat any dessert at home any more, and the desserts were hurt ~~

Today I had the urge to bake so I got out my recipe box and decided to bake cinnamon rolls. I had fun making it. Deanna came over and showed me a neat trick of using dental floss to cut out the rolls.


However, I think I killed the yeast before they ever kicked in. The liquid mixture was too hot. So after hours of waiting, the rolls never rose :-) I baked them any way and they are so ugly I'm depressed now.

Poor John has to eat a couple to recognize my efforts even though I'm sure it's hard to swallow. I'm throwing them all out! I'm gonna conquer them next time when I cheer up again, if ever! John says I'm too dramatic. Maybe I am. But I am in a very dramatic mood right now, what's worse, Iwill have lost one hour sleep when I wake up tomorrow morning!! Outrageous!

I'm Tagged!

List of eight tag:
Post rules on your blog
Answer the five '8' items
Let each person you tag know by leaving them a comment

8 Favorite TV shows:
1. Friends (I loved it until I could recite every line in it. Then it became less fun.)
2. NCIS
3. 24
4. Rachel Ray 30 min meals
5. Discovery Channel when John's watching it (Man V Wild, dirty job, Myth Buster, Cash cab)
6. The Cosby Show
7. Andrew Zimmerman: Weird Food
8. I love Korean dramas, and Chinese dramas

8 things I did yesterday:
1. Got up and ate breakfast
2. Taught a TOEFL class
3. Met with my student teacher to plan out next week
4. Taught another TOEFL class
5. Came home and ate lunch
6. Went to the translation company
7. cooked a Chinese dinner
8. Talked to my mom for 68 min before I went to bed.

8 favorite restaurants: (I guess this is limited to Utah.)
1. Samhawk (Korean)
2. Tucano's
3. 4 Seasons (Chinese hotpot)
4. Outback
5. Asian Buffet
6. Thai Ruby
7. Sushi
8. Wendy's? If that counts~~

8 Things I'm looking forward to:
1. SPRING!!
2. Sunday BBQ at John's sister's
3. TESOL conference next week (I get two days off work)
4. Having a baby
5. John's graduation
6. Finding a hair stylist who can fix Asian hair properly
7. Becoming a gourmet cook
8. Our next trip...

8 things on my wish list: (I'm kind of thrift. I don't wish for many things. I usually do without.)
1. a house
2. a car that's automatic
3. my parents' good health
4. a motorcycle for John (I always dreamed about riding on my husband's huge motorbike:-)
5. a family with more than just the two of us
6. shopping to my heart's content
7. a kitchen-aid
8. World Peace? :-)

I tag (I don't have many blogger friends...yet...)
1. Jan Hart
2. Christine and/or Ryan Harding
3. Amber Elmer
4. Candice Mcwhorter
5. Sheri Adams
6. Erica Jackman
7. Mandy Clark
8. Whoever else read this

working

I've been working with this translation agency in Provo on Thursday and Fridays after teaching at the ELC. It's mostly review work of some very technical English. I deal with English such as "2.4 g (of the dry weight) of the wet PIPD pulp with CSF of about 300 ml was placed in a Waring Blender with 800 ml of water and agitated for 1 min. 0.8 g of carbon fiber were placed with about 2500 g water in the laboratory pulp disintegrator and agitated for 3 minutes. " It's highly boring. I don't even know what they are talking about in Chinese. However, I still manage to enjoy it because it's a different experience for me.

It also makes me grateful for the teaching job I have. I realized more than ever that I'm not an office person. I love people, well, mostly the interaction with people. Despite the fact that sometimes I wanna kill some of my students, I still think teaching is a prefect profession for me.

It also makes me think about what it'll be like staying home someday as a full-time mom. I love working and being independent so much. Am I ever gonna get used to staying home all day and waiting for my husband to bring home the bread? I've heard both good and bad things about a full-time mom. Some like it, others not so much? I can't wait to experience it myself.

Break is over. Back to my two giant computer screens~~

My Big American Family

Those who know me well know that I am in association with a group of "BYU China Teachers" and that they are my family in America. They are all retired couples who volunteered to teach English in China through BYU's Kennedy Center. They don't wear missionary badges; they don't carry copies of the Book of Mormon; they don't knock on doors; what do they do? They touch people's hearts by their exceptional examples.

I became friends with many of them while I was in college in China. I helped them get around in Qingdao (where I went to college for 4 years), and in turn they taught me English, brought me to America, helped me find the Gospel, and introduced me to a life that I had never dreamed of.

We went to dinner with three of the couples tonight in Asian Buffet because the Baileys are visiting from Moses Lake. Every time I'm with them, I feel home.

The Coles are literaraly my American family. They sponsored me to come to America, provided me with great housing for 3 years while I was at BYU, and continued to help my brother when he needed help. I have so many beautiful memories with them. They had an adventurous life in the "bushes" in Alaska. I love hearing their wild Alaskan stories. Not many people get phone calls because their cabin was invaded by bears :-)


The Hardings are one of our favorite people. We are so blessed to have them close by so we could see them often (and eat there often). When my visa application was rejected twice by the US embassy, I was so upset and lost. I had to put my life on hold, and that's not fun. I remember the day when Brother Harding called me to his apartment and said to me in his calm voice, "You know Sherry, Senator Hatch owes me a favor, and I think it's time to retrieve the favor." And a few days later he handed me a letter signed by the Senator and told me it's time for me to go to the embassy again. And the rest is history.
The Baileys are the glue that keeps the group together. Everybody loves the Baileys. They are always so nice and thoughtful to everyone. I remember the days when I would go to their apartment for pancakes; I also remember watching the first book of Mormon video in their apartment; I remember their constant help when I first got here; I appreciate their efforts to keep everyone in touch. They always bring with them the sweetest spirit! I always tell John when we get old, if we are as happy as the Baileys, I'll be very thankful.

I am forever grateful for the prayers and fast the BYU teachers offered on my behalf to get me where I am today. Back when I didn't know what fast and prayers were, Brother Anderson would pull me aside and tell me to have faith. I did and how grateful I was for being in such great company!

I love my big American family!

My Missionary

I love missionary work and I love missionaries! I feel so blessed and proud to have a little brother out in the mission field. I want to dedicate this post to him.
Owen came to Provo on Christmas Eve, 2006. He studied English at the ELC for two semesters, passed the TOEFL and went to BYU Hawaii for his undergraduate. He got baptized in May 2007 before he left for Hawaii. He was in a great ward with great friends and leaders in Hawaii. They influenced him in such a good way that he decided to go on a mission. He turned in his papers and had lots of complications because of his visa problem. But Heavenly Father would not let Satan stop this fine young man doing His work. Things worked out and he went to the MTC in December 2008. Now he's serving in Seattle, English speaking. But he talks to lots of Chinese people on his mission and speaks Chinese to them. He's been out for 2 months and has baptized a couple Chinese students on UW campus.
Here's part of a letter he wrote me a couple weeks ago,

"I have been teaching five people from mainland China, three of them is going to be baptised this Saturday. I have been touched by these Chinese people. I want to share some experience I had the past month.
Inva is a girl from Wuhan, study at University of Washinton. She told me that "Elder Li, when you teaching about Jesus Christ, I can see your eyes are different, looks very pure. I feel so peaceful when I learn about Jesus Christ. I've never had that feeling before. I want to be baptised.
Shengkun, a guy from Qingdao wrote me a note before I got transfered. He said"This past month, I have learned so much things that I never heard before. I feel so peaceful when you guys teach me. I have a better understanding about life. This is something I have been seeking for in my life. Thank you, ELder Li"
Yan, a Chinese girl cried during the scarement meeting when we sing closing hymn. She told me that she felt something really different, she felt like home. Very peaceful and grateful. She said "everytime I think about your church, I just smile, I want to join your church."
These experiences have really touched me and strengthed my testimony. This is why the gospel is true."

Every time I read his letters, I get overwhelmed by the abundance of the Spirit and I cry. I know because of his servie, our family is being blessed!

The Shanghai Express is stopping in Provo :-)

So we, mostly I, decided to blog again. We had such a hard time accessing blogspot in China that we kind of deserted it.

We came back from Shanghai on Dec 8th and took my little brother Owen (Elder Li) to the MTC on the 10th. We hung out in Provo for a couple days with the Hardings while we looked for an apartment. Then we headed down to southern UT to spend the Christmas holiday with John's parents.

Now we're back in Provo, where John goes to school and I work at the ELC. John expects to graduate next April, so until then our Shanghai Express will stay put in good old P-town.

I teach writing and grammar to students from all over the world, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Africa, France... and I love it! It's a fun job and it pays well. The only thing is that it's not a full-time position so I cannot get benefits, mostly insurance. As a result, we can't have a baby...yet.

I had a full-time job lined up with a translation company in Provo. But due to the economic slowdown, they can't afford me any more. I'm still working with them part-time, hoping it'll lead to a full-time position once the economy picks up. Who knows when that'll happen. John's trying to get a job with benefits in the summer so we'll see how that goes. Keep your fingers crossed!

So that's the update for now.