Double Happiness: Year of Tiger+Valentine's Day Part 1: the Chinese dinner

This year, the Chinese New Year happened to be on the same day as Valentine's. So we celebrated both on the same day. We made Chinese food and decorated heart-shaped cookies. Thanks to Megan and her friends, I didn't have to cook most of the dishes. All I had to prepare was the stuff for dumplings. Judson brought some delicious Korean drinks that reminded us of China.

2010 will be a great year for all of us!!

First Baby Gift

A couple days ago, we got our first baby gift in the mail. Well, I should say the 1st hand-made gift because the Mckays got us some cute stuff from Alaska during Christmas!
I can't wait to put my baby in it! (click on the picture to see it bigger.)

(click on the picture to see it bigger.) This is made by Viola Bean, one of the first group of BYU teachers I know from China. They live in Boise, Idaho. They are the ones who cooked me my 1st home-made hamburger! Now they also made the 1st baby quilt for me! I love them so much!

This picture was taken in 2006, when my parents came over for my graduation. The Beans came in town to visit families and got to meet my parents. Mr. Bean is one of the greatest gentlemen I've ever known. I love him so much!

With all the baby stuff lying around, and my belly starting to stick out, the fact that we're having a baby is finally sinking in :-)

The sweetest treats

For the young women activity last night, we made valentine's day chocolate!! It was so much fun making the sweetest treats for our sweethearts :-) This year, Valentine's falls on the same day as the Chinese New Year. So we're going to celebrate our romantic day with many of our good friends at our New Year Party!! I can't wait!!

With Sister Wilkinson and Callie
This is my favorite: caramel with macadamia



Happy Valentine!!!!!!!

A broken blog

Something happened to my blog. I can only post pictures for now. I'll have to wait for John to come home and fix it.

Happy Birthday, Kate!

For Kate's birthday this year, we went to the Peruvian restaurant in Orem, La Carreta with Emily and Mama. We had a great time eating good food and catching up. Someday, some lucky guy will discover Kate and count himself one of the luckiest guys in the world! Happy birthday, Kate!!!

a lazy January

We've had a very laid-back January, mostly because of me, the prego blob. Nothing makes me want to leave the couch or the bed. I ate hundreds of pounds of fruit, watched several Korean dramas, and complained about different smells, and hated all the pimples that kept popping up on my face.

But there are a couple things we managed to do and have fun.

For one of John's classes, he has to go to the Bean Museum to find certain animals. This childish homework turned out to be fun. It was the 1st time I've been at the museum, so I had a great time learning about different animals and taking pictures.




Loved the snow!
The teachers at Selnate made Waffle breakfast for the students.
Annett and I both wore our "flirty aprons" :-)

We loved babysitting Addie a couple times. This cutie pie actually makes me want to have a baby more.


Hopefully February will take my sickness away and bring us more sunshine and fun!!!!

John's Birthday- Jan 5th, 2010

John's last birthday really sucked because our car was towed the day before!! (I would do anything to make the tow guys disappear!!) This year it wasn't looking very promising either because one of his in-grown toe was coming back after the last surgery. He forgot about his birthday when he scheduled the doctor's appointment. What was he thinking?!

I had planned a surprise party for him that evening, thinking he'd be at work till 5pm as usual. But after his surgery at 2pm, he wanted to come home instead of going to work. It totally threw me off. I tried to get him to work, but didn't want to be too pushy (you should go to work with your broken toe, yea that won't give me away).

Luckily when he got home, he went to the bedroom, put up his feet, and fell asleep. I closed the door and started getting the food ready. Since I couldn't stand the smell of cooking, I had to go with sandwiches. I had bought everything from Costco the day before with Deanna and hid them at different places. Deanna took the cake home and brought it back right before the party. But I had to cook him some noodles, which symbolizes longevity in China, despite my cooking phobia.

People came before he woke up, and he was a little surprised when he saw everyone there. It was fun!

Happy birthday, baby! I love you!!!!!!!

Christmas 2009

This is the 1st Christmas we hosted in our house. We were going to New Harmony, but I wasn't feeling well and Paul broke his leg. So we decided to stay in Provo.

We put up a Christmas tree the very last minute because I REALLY wanted one. We (I) made popcorn and paper ring ornaments. It looked very festive! My very first Christmas tree! We had Megan, Neil, and their friends Sarah and Micheal over for breakfast Christmas morning and opened gifts! John made pumpkin waffles FROM SCRATCH! It was really yummy. John made an all-American breakfast, including eggs, bacon, sausage, orange juice, etc. It was Sarah and Micheal's first American breakfast and Christmas. They just got to Provo a week ago. After breakfast, we played Apples to Apples and Blink. We had a lot of fun.

We also got to see the Mckays a couple days after Christmas. They came down from Alaska and we had a get-together at Uncle Mark's house in Provo. It's always fun to hang out with them. Don brought fresh Salmon from Alaska and baked it for us. John even loved it even though he never ate any fish.

We wish we could have spent the holiday with family. But we are grateful for a peaceful, relaxing and fun Christmas.

Christmas Newsletter 2009

Here's the newsletter we sent out this year! Merry Christmas!!!!!

Dear family and friends,

A year has come and gone. John and I have been back in the States for exactly one year by today (12/08). We miss our time in China, but we’ve also enjoyed being back in America.

John has been going to school full time since we came back. He’s graduating in April, 2010. We are very excited about that! I have been working in a couple language schools in Provo, teaching English to students from all over the world. I love my job and it’s fun adventure everyday, well most days :-)

As most of you know, John has decided to pursue a career with the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer. He passed the written test in October and we are waiting for the oral interview that’ll take place in Washington, D.C early next year. If he passes the interview, we may be moving to D.C anytime in the following 24 months. We are excited for a change. We are also excited that we’ll be closer to some of the family on the east coast that we’ve always wanted to visit.

Much has happened this year. We are ever grateful for the blessings we receive every day. My brother Elder Li has been serving an LDS mission in Seattle, Washington for a year. He’s had a lot of success in his area and he’s grown into a great young man beyond all of our expectations. My cousin Megan and her boyfriend Neil both came over from China to go to school at BYU and were recently baptized. Both sets of our parents are healthy. Their love and support keep us going everyday. We’ve enjoyed seeing many of you this year on different occasions. We love all of you and are so grateful to have you in our life.

Among everything, our friend, Max Cole, who was like a father to my brother and I, passed away peacefully on a warm August afternoon. It broke my heart to find out he was gone, but I know he’s in a better place where there is only love, sunshine, and lots of farmland J I’ll miss him till I see him again!

Last but not least, John and I are expecting a BABY in August next year! We found out around Thanksgiving and couldn’t wait to share it with all of you! I’ve been feeling good until today when I had to come home from work because of nausea. But I’m still happy that the baby decided to join us J

We love all of you and wish you a Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

John and Sherry

12/08/09

Picture Courtesy of Emily Simpson :-)

Tiger Girl 虎妞

The idea of becoming a mother hasn't hit me until I heard the strong heart-beat of the baby today! OMG, we are REALLY going to have a baby!! The ultrasound shows that the baby is about 1cm long from head to butt, really healthy. One centimeter! That's about the size of my finger nail. This little thing has turned her healthy, active mother into a sick, inactive blob.

The doctor called this phase "the Blah Phrase", which is a very true reflection of my life right now.

-"Honey, you wanna go out?"
-"Blah..."

-"You wanna eat something?"
-"Blah..."

-"You wanna dress up and go for a walk?"
-"Blah..."

-"You wanna do the dishes?"
-"Blah..."

-"You wanna cook?"
-"Blah..."

All the bad feelings aside, I am grateful for the signals the baby's sending me. It's her way to let me know she's there, she is growing, and she needs some attention.

Bring it on, Tiger Girl~~

New haircut

I got so tired of my long hair that I decided to get a cut. Believe it or not, I've never actually got a haircut in America for the past 5 years I've been here. American hair stylists just don't know how to deal with the thick, stiff Asian hair, and the strange shape of an Asian skull :-)

I remember when my American brother Cody tried to cut my hair (he's a very good stylist), he struggled with it until I came back from China with a videotape for him from a salon. He learned that he actually COULD just thin out 2/3 of my hair and still not make me bald :-)

Anyways, I heard about this salon in Provo run by a Latin lady. All the hairdressers there are from Latin America. I thought they had similar hair to Asian's. So I decided to try it out. If it didn't turn out, it's okay because I have one month to grow it out before school starts again.

It turns out to be a very nice surprise. I wouldn't say it's the best haircut I've ever had, but I would definitely go back again. It's cheap ($15.00) and the Colombian lady that cut my hair was very friendly.

So here's the new look.Ta-dah...

This shot is for Naisi, who brought me back this beautiful dress all the way from NYC! Love you!