A Butterfly, A Ladybug, A Spider, and One Old Man!

Oh how relieved we were to receive our mail-order Halloween costumes one day before the festivities started, because of course, we still did not have our things at the end of October. No Halloween decor, no costumes, no candy, nothing. Still, we had a great Halloween. We always do, and it's Daddy's favorite time of the year because it's his birthday! And oh boy, was this a big one. 4-0!!! His birthday poster reads "Happy Birthday Old Man!", sentiments from Sophie. I had nothing to do with it.

The birthday dinner, hardly a fancy affair this year, but the kids had a blast decorating the room.

The cake, Jack, from "The Nightmare Before Christmas"

I missed the opportunity to capitalize on the fact that my husband is now in his 40's, and I am still in my 30's. We may have to do a special "over-the-hill" party for him next year, when I will STILL be in my 30's.
And the pumpkins that we carved that night. Or rather, the pumpkins and their gooey innards that the kids complained about, so they went to bed while Mom designed and Dad then carved. I have to say that we did an awesome job, especially because they won a major award at our Consulate's pumpkin-carving contest. Who says you have to let your kids have all the fun?


Sophie and Lucas got to wear their Halloween costumes to school, and later that evening the school put on an amazing Halloween festival, complete with games, food, haunted house, trick-or-treating, and a Dooby dancing to Michael Jackson's "Thriller."


Our little ladybug was quite content to just play on the playground, but she did win a dolly on one of the games and promptly popped off it's cheap little Chinese head.

Lucas with his teacher, Mr. Roberto, as Beetlejuice

We didn't see little Ms. Sophie for most of the night. She was flitting around winning prizes and eating way too many treats for a little butterfly. She threw up later that night.


As I mentioned, the Consulate had a Halloween party for the kids and again there were games, prizes, and trick-or-treating. How awesome is it to have your kids run around a building with 12 apartments to trick-or-treat, with a bag full of good old-fashioned U.S. candy 5 minutes later? It was awesome, and we should have stopped right there. But we didn't. We marched in a Halloween parade that took us a mile or two down the main vein of Chengdu to a big housing area. Believe me, we are already on parade most of the time. Add a big group of expats all dressed in costume, and you've got yourself a full-fledge freak show for the locals. Boy are they good at staring! Once we got to this housing area, the only place to trick-or-treat locally in Chengdu, we waited for 1 1/2 hours for our turn to trick-or-treat. We were the last group, and were getting hard little coffee candies from the Chinese helpers. All the good stuff was gone. And then, way past dark, we couldn't find a cab (this is an irritating theme of life here.) We had 3 little bugs who were at their wits end, and they had to walk home. In the dark. In the traffic on a busy road. And we may have yelled at one or maybe 5 drivers who almost ran us over in the traffic circle. Our little bug collapsed at the front door. Chengdu does that to you.

Next year I think we'll stay in and eat our compound booty while watching a Halloween movie that will scare the poop out of the kids. Sounds way more fun right?

Doe, a DEEEEEERRRRRRR

Moving to Chengdu was hard. Living here without our stuff for 3 months was infinitely harder. So how did we fill our days? Wouldn't you all like to know? Here goes!
What to do when your home is empty, according to the Hedquists:

1. Get out and explore!

The beautiful Bamboo Garden Park

The Chengdu Panda Base--we've already been twice and love love love it. More on this later!
A quaint "old" Chengdu street
The Peep's Park

2. Get crafty with the only things you've got: white paper and scissors


3. Play outside on the compound playground! And Hallelujah for that.

Boo and her BFF Julia, along with their shared ayi (auntie) Huang Yin

4. Play dress-up: Queen Boo and her minions

5. Read! Read! Read! (Like Mother, Like Daughter)


6. My personal favorite, take a snuggly nap


7. And last, but certainly not least, sing at the top of your lungs to take advantage of that echo!



We may need Grandma Hedquist to give us a few singing pointers this summer :)

*Not working? Unlike Kip, I DON'T love technology, and I may or may not know how to embed a video. That plus the internet keeps disconnecting along with my VPN right in the middle of the dang download. This is a labor of love for sure. I hope you appreciate it.

And now, if you're still interested after all that, click on this link to view video.

The Compound

Sounds a little bit like Southern Utah or even Texas, but that's what we call our apartment complex and surrounding area. That's right, we now live on a compound in China. At least it's U.S. soil. It's located at the U.S. Consulate, separated by locked gates so random Chinese citizens can't wander in. Our compound bubble is completely enclosed and safe, which has been awesome for the kids. They can finally, finally, for the first time in their little lives, go outside to play on their own. Here are a few pictures of the grounds:

At the top of the tennis court we have a pool, a nice pool with an oversized "luke-warm" tub where the kiddos float around. We are so happy to have it! I hear our pool is the cleanest in Chengdu and I believe it. Apparently the medical officer has taken water samples from several pools at other housing locations and the schools, and has found e-coli swimming around, among other things. Like I said, I'm grateful for our pool. The "Chengdu" gets cleaned from it every day, even throughout winter.

Let me just say, after looking at the above pictures, that I've had a change of perspective. Back in September when I took those pictures I wasn't too thrilled with where we live. Now, looking at those patches of sun on green grass, I've changed my mind. It looks like Heaven after living in the dark for the past 6 months.

Now: The Lone and Dreary playground

Our apartment on the 2nd level

And yes, these pictures were taken around noon time, not in the early a.m. or late p.m. hours. This is our reality right now. I can't wait for spring/summer to return to our little compound so we can all commune in light and harmony and peace and love and all that good stuff.

Let's start at the very beginning. . .

A very good place to start. Yep, the kids are watching "Sound of Music." So, the week after school let out we left Taiwan, and not just for the summer as usual. The apartment was empty, echo-ey and all sterile and boring, and 16 bags were packed and ready to be hauled through the airports. It was a very sad time for our family, but fortunately with our summer plans all implications of moving and the upheaval of our home life were soon forgotten as we played in the sand, sun and even snow for the very first time! And then, when it was all over and we were supposed to head to our next post in Chengdu, China, we came to a screeching halt at the Residence Inn for one month. ONE MONTH. In a hotel room. With 3 children and most of the time, no car. I'll tell you what, I was cursing the government left and right, but it's best left in past. Let's just say we had lots of time to get real close as a family.

And the rest of the time we basically went nuts.

At the end of our month in the hotel, after going through several headaches trying to reschedule our itinerary with little notice, I frankly welcomed China with open arms. Anything, even Chengdu China, would be better, right?

And then we were finally on our way. We flew out of Dulles 1/2 hour before the earthquake hit and shut down the airport and whole D.C. area. Divine intervention for sure, because we couldn't have handled one more delay!

Yea Beijing! Boo Beijing airport procedures, domestic gates and shuttle bus to the plane!

And finally, after one super fun summer, one looooonnnnggg month in a hotel, and 24 hours of air travel, our life began in Chengdu.

Nice suspense, right? Until next time, and let's hope it's not a year!

A Eulogy

Taiwan Hedquists was a good blog, a strong blog, entertaining and informing it's readers on our family's life in Taiwan until one day last February it died unexpectedly. Will it be reincarnated in Chengdu, China? Only time will tell. For now though, we will wish the Taiwan Hedquists a sad, sad farewell.

The last Taiwanese breakfast, a solemn occasion: danbings and xiaolongbao (egg wraps and pork soup dumplings, oh how I love and miss thee!)

Oh Happy Day

The day after Christmas the kids inevitably wanted to know "what next?" so I told them it was Sadie's birthday at the end of January. The older siblings immediately filled Sadie in on what "birthday" meant--cake, presents, candles, and party. Her little radar zoomed right in on this "Happy Day" as she called it, and each day, several times a day, I had to regrettably inform Boo that no, it was not yet her "Happy Day." So what a joyous morning Boo finally had when she awoke to find her door decorated with candy (a birthday tradition) and a new bike!

We took the kids down to the church to ride bikes and moseyed over to California Grill to stuff big fat hamburgers into our faces--yum!


Then got crazy in the balloons at the mall and came home for cake.

Yea for Boo's happy day! We love you our already-naughty little 2 year old!

Bridal Brouhaha

So I mentioned that we were down at the church to ride bikes for Boo's birthday. Oh was I overjoyed to have my camera, because I had to covertly document this that was just so wrong on so many levels. As background, when couples get married they take probably a hundred pictures in different gowns and costumes at different locations. Our LDS temple is a hot spot for wedding pictures among the locals because it is such a beautiful building. Apparently this girl just came from the shotgun saloon for her shoot. I never knew Chinese girls had so much cleavage, and it's a darn good thing she was wearing a "scarf," because it was cold outside!

Wascally Wabbit

We are quickly approaching the Chinese New Year, which is MY year, the year of the rabbit (and I am wascally, just ask Shaun.)  Interesting enough though, quite a few of my qualities match up with the Chinese zodiac.  I guess they do know a thing or two over here in chiggity-China.  In years past we have done much exploring and celebrating of this exciting red and gold holiday, but it's funny that with each zodiac animal that rolls around, we do less.  Maybe it's that we're disenchanted with the crowds, or we've developed a "been there, done that" attitude after 8 years, or we have 3 kids and are too lazy to haul them around.  Last year our CNY adventures puttered to a dismal stop with a dumpling lunch, running around the gym at the church, and this:

I am determined to step up my game this year and jump back into the Chinese celebrations. Or at least make Shaun perform the lion dance for my personal enjoyment and our collection of home videos.  In renewing our efforts to "live" in and experience Asia, Shaun and I went to a traditional food market in Taipei last week, one of the oldest in the city.

Oh my, were there treasures to behold, best described by a plethora of S's: shriveled seafood, savory sausages, and sweet succulents.

dried everything, take your pick, from squid to sea cucumber

shark fins, and I apologize to all animal rights activists everywhere on behalf of my Chinese brothers and sisters

snausages. . . . I think?

Hot dogs (on a closer look, the sign reads "squid sausages"), and don't ask me why they're black.  The most important question is: Is that a real hunk of tube-pressed squid-on-a-stick on that man's shoulders?

And. . . peanuts galore

Just in case you're wondering, I got a bag of peanuts and a jar of yogurt-covered raisins.  What?  After all my comments about taking part in Asian living and rekindling that adventurous spirit, you didn't expect me to go loco local and gnaw on dried squid did you?

Merry Christmas!

Tonight our little family went Christmas caroling.  Boo and Sophie were angels and Dooby was a shepherd and they sang "GLO-oo-ooo-oo-ooo-OOOOORIA" most gloriously.  We all had a good time, but by 8:30 the kids were done.  On our drive home as I sat trying to rub the ache from my forehead in the midst of back seat melt-downs, I had a childhood flashback.

It was Christmas Eve in Provo, and my family of 7 stuffed into our Chevette (yes, 7 in the Chevette, you didn't read it wrong) to bring Christmas cheer to Dad's friends and co-workers.  Dad had promised "just a quick trip!" and Mom had our favorite soup simmering on the stove awaiting our return.  But it was not a quick trip, because we got lost.  And then there was the fighting, crying, and complaining of 5 children.  By the time we got home the soup had burnt, and any Christmas cheer we'd initially experienced had gone down in flames with it.

Now we are the parents, trying to bring that Christmas spirit to our family as we try to teach them the value of giving even as they are tired, whining, and complaining.  We are the ones who will go home, put them to bed, and then stay up cleaning the toys, doing the dishes, wrapping the presents, and folding the clothes.  But you know what?  I'm so glad that it is our turn to experience it all, because somehow joy manages to weave itself through the work and stresses of parenthood. 

On Sunday night we were talking about our favorite Christmas memories with the kids and told them about Christmas 2003, the year we surprised Grandma and Papa twice by showing up in Effingham, IL. all the way from China and then telling them we were pregnant!  We got out our family videos and let the kids watch those joyous surprises.  We explained to Sophie that it was such a surprise because we didn't know if she would ever come to our family, and that we were crying happy tears!  What a turning point that was for us.  The beginning of the end of our honeymoon existence, which has rapidly gone down in flames.  We used to have such a pristine clean home.  We slept in every weekend until 10, ate a big breakfast, and then took a nap.  We flirted shamelessly.  We went on vacations, just the two of us!  Now we eat the cold left-over spaghetti out of the kids' bowls for dinner, complain nightly about throwing away all the toys because we're tired of cleaning, go out on a date (if we're lucky) once a month, and bicker over who will get up with Dooby at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning.  It's such a different world, but I can't imagine living in the old one.  It would seem so empty now.

During this season as I reflect on my memories, I am grateful for my parents who worked so hard for me and taught me that sacrifice and service was more important than burnt soup.  I'm grateful for my husband who loved me when I was youthful and flirtatious, and who still loves me when I'm tired, cranky, and flabby.  And I'm especially grateful for my 3 precious children, who changed our lives that momentous Christmas season of 2003 and made me smile to myself tonight as they belted out "GLO-oo-ooo-oo-ooo-OOOOORIA" at the top of their little angelic lungs.  Merry Christmas!

The Blaring Silence

It's been a L-O-N-G time, I know.  You assume I finally achieved that perfect balance of motherhood, which means I ditched the computer and got real with reality.  Could be.  Or maybe I've been busy firming up my physique and now look like I did 15 years ago.  Ummmmm no.  Am I immersed in school, homework, schedules, and errands?  Possibly.  Or, is it that I've traded one electronic vice for another?  guilty.  I've met The Kindle and I'm addicted.  It's that magic little high I get when I select the "Buy Now" button.  After being overseas and without a library for years and years and years, I now find myself stuffing books into my face just as fast as I can.  What children?  What husband? What blog?  You get the picture.  So, I have come up for air long enough to play catch up on the blog for my mother, who complains that she hasn't seen pictures of the kids in months and only knows what we're doing through her friends on Facebook. Here's 2 months worth, have at it!

Oops! I did it again. . . . .

THUMBS DOWN!!!  Dad wet his pants for Family Night.  It was by far our best F.H.E. EVER.  Just wanted to preserve the memory while I share it with the world.  Notice the strategically-placed towel that just happened to be on the floor. . . . good thing because that's a lot of leakage :)

*Shaun wants me to clarify that a cup of water was involved.