Baby Kylie...Congrats!

Brett and Stacie are proud parents of a darling little girl they named Kylie. I do not have any of the specifics...someone please post them! From what I can tell she was born on her Grandmother's birthday. Deane that was weird to call you that. Kyle I can easily call Grandpa however...LOL.

China Trip
January 11-20

What an adventure I’ve had. I left my home at 6:00 am and arrived at the competition in China on Tuesday morning at 3:30 am. This translates to about 31 ½ hours (there is a 14 hour time distance. By the time we got to the hotel and into our room and into bed, it was 4:30 am. Christopher Ding had invited us to be part of a piano competition which was sponsored by the Hasnow International Youth Advanced Art Activitiy Committee and the Chinese National Art Education Committee, Heilongjiang Piano Teahcers' Association and United Association of American Musicians.
The food was interesting---lots of vegetables, noodles, pot stickers and rice. Chopsticks were the utensils given us. I got to be pretty good with them. Favorite food---potatoes that looked like French fries with Karo syrup on them. They were dip them in cold water to cool them enough so we could eat them—yummy and interesting. Lots of veggies eaten during the week which explains why we didn’t see any fat people in China. I did miss water though---no water at dinner unless it is boiling hot (because they have to sanitize it.) The beds consisted of a long board with basically towels on it so that it wasn’t too hard J---really it was literally a board until a “mattress” façade.
The language---no cognates at all. I always try and pick up a few phrases of whatever language the country we are visiting speaks. Some people seemed to understand my “thank you” (she she), but only ½ of them. I think I have “1, 2, 3” down as well because we had only one million pictures taken of us. They LOVE taking pictures. I felt like quite a starJ

On Tuesday, there were the opening ceremonies were held in the basement of the hotel we were staying in. They love their spectacle. There were 4-5 numbers and an MC who reminded me of an Hispanic TV announcer who is overexcited yelling “Goal” at the soccer matches. He was chewing on his mike---very entertaining. The first number was a group of 10 small children (ages 4-5—maybe 6?) who were dressed up in little red costumes with hoods. I thought I was going to die. They were so darling! One little girl touched my hair since I was probably the only blond she had ever seen. She was too shy to take a picture at first, but finally relented. They all had make up on as well.
After lunch, Mom went to judge the piano competition and I went to “judge” the English competition which really didn’t turn out to be much of a competition at all—more of a talent show. The kids ranged from 8-13ish. There were about 6 speakers---I understood quite a bit of what they said. Then there were about 6 songs with groups of kids who had learned to sing folk songs: “Twinkle, twinkle” was my favorite, but they also sang “Bingo was his name” “10 little Indians,” and “Do, re, mi.”
I felt that the some of the organization of this week was organized by Hispanic people or orange people, if you know what I mean. We almost always had interpreters, which was fortunate, but most activities seemed to be moment to moment as you’ll see. I decided to think of it as a “cultural experience” and stopped worrying about the organization of it. The communication with us about the schedule and the plan was almost non existent. Christopher Ding, who had brought us to China, either didn’t explain what he wanted, or didn’t always seem to have plan. He got better throughout the week. For example, I was on the bus from Harbin to the ski resort that I would be giving a master class back in Harbin and also listening to and judging a voice competition. I’m not sure if I’m up to another 4 hour trip back to Harbin, but I guess that’s where I’m going. We have to leave at 4:30 am to get there---ouch! I’m delighted to be part of that though!
Mom and I decided to change rooms. The room we were given was on the 4th floor with no elevator. The walking was too much for Mom. There were 88 steps to get to our room so we moved to the 2nd floor. We didn’t tell Christopher, which was unfortunate as we found out later. The room was nicer and cleaner. The 4th floor had dirty carpet and the 2nd floor room didn’t have carpet so it was cleaner. The showers really only consisted of a drain on the floor---so the whole floor would get wet. We just used the towel to wipe up the floor. I have to admit---we missed toilet paper. There was never enough of it, but at least we had toilets in the room and not down the hall or just a place to squat which is what we had outside of the hotels. Yuck!

Wednesday January 14
Christopher told me to be ready at 4:30. I went to the lobby---no Christopher. I waited for 50 minutes---no Christopher. They don’t heat places if no one is there---so it was very cold. I know it was -20 in Harbin (that’s Celsius), but I’m sure it was colder here since we were I the mountains. I talked with Paul, who was the other English “judge” who thought this whole experience was like an Agatha Christie murder mystery—kind of like “10 little Indians.” I could definitely see what he meant, we were all brought up to a Ski resort near the Siberian border surrounded by tigers without any means of communication…... It had potential of a movie! I finally went back to my room and talked with Mom. At 6:20, I found Christopher and Mrs. Ding in his office---why he didn’t hear me talking in the lobby which was down the hall from his office is beyond me. They had been waiting since 4:30 and had gone up to our old room looking for us and didn’t know we had changed rooms. I say “us” because when I saw him, he asked “where’s Shirley?” He wanted Mom to go with us, but didn’t mention that to me until now. Oh well—the adventure was about to start.
I went up to our room and since she was already awake, she just threw on her performing clothes since Christopher just informed me that I was performing that night. OK---I’m up for it. I brought my gown and music and we jumped in the car. About ½ way to Harbin, he mentioned that we would probably stay in Harbin for 2 days---did he mention that to us? We didn’t bring our clothes, suitcase, PJs etc. I suitcase and clean clothes would have been nice. We stayed in Harbin from Wed-Friday and never returned to the ski resort. Needless to say, I was very glad to finally wash my blouse out3 days later! Mom had to be in her performing clothes for 3 days, I at least had pants on.
Orange---what can I say? I can’t decide if Christopher is super disorganized, or dishonest, or just doesn’t know how to communicate. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt.
In Harbin, Mom and I judged the voice competition all day. There were 7 judges from all over China and then the 2 of us. There were many singers and Mom was a bit intimidated by judging a voice competition. I just put my thumb up or down if I liked someone and she gave a score (she was usually right on.) The judges were very nice—very little English though. Christopher disappeared and went back to Yabuli (the ski resort). We didn’t see him until Friday. There were pictures for 30 minutes again…..if I had a $1 for each picture taken, I could retire J
I think we got the better deal than the judges in Yabuli---the hotel room was really nice and we ate at restaurants for every meal. There was a small lip on the floor in the bathroom to catch the water in the shower which was nice too. No more water (well---at least there was less water on the floor.) They kept showing me how they use their tongue to create sounds (I notice how tense their tongues were while singing.) We had some great conversations about singing. A lot of singing things can be communicated without language---just by gestures and motions which we both use to explain singing to our own singers.
The judging went through the afternoon and afterwards I gave my recital. Mom played for me. I sang Schumann songs and “I could have danced all night” since when I was in Japan---they had requested an American piece. They wanted an encore, so I sang it again and grabbed the hand of one of the male singers, whom I had taught in a private lesson, and we started to dance. They loved it and it was fun! Mom and I were both presented with flowers after the recital. They were so beautiful and smelled great. Oh, I was also able to teach about 13 lessons in Harbin and I LOVED the teaching
For dinner, we went with the teachers and the tenor (who I danced with) He helped translate, which was nice. He ordered for us. Mom wanted shrimp---I told her to be careful with eating meat here (I tried to avoid it.) He didn’t know the word for “shrimp” so ordered us a fish head instead. We had to try it since they ordered it specially for us---It was fine (as long as you closed your eyes.) One our translators reminded me of Matt because he was so into Hollywood movies.
That evening we went to the Intl. Ice Sculptures. It was absolutely amazing! They are very generous people The ice sculptures were huge---houses, and castles and a ship. All were life size. The park itself was huge. There was a wall 40 feet high by 200 feet long with 3 dimension Disney figures. (It was a Disney theme that year.) All sculptures were lit up with colored lights. The other judges were at the ski resort and missed it all.

We saw the Olympic stadium in the car plus much of the outskirts of the city. Very interesting. The wall is about 60 km away and in the mountains. There is no way I could explain it---it’s amazing and beautiful. I can’t believe it took 1000 years to construct. We took the cable car up vs walking up since Mom didn’t think she could walk it---she’s right she couldn’t have. It was really steep. This is something not to miss. Huge 10 feet wide walls that we walked up and down and all over with quite a view. This is one of the most wonderful things I’ve seen!
That evening we went shopping in Beijing. I really enjoyed this. Mom stayed home, but I went and just wandered. You are supposed to “bargain” with the vendors, but we found a store that had really good deals and didn’t need to do too much bargaining with them. You usually bargain with the calculator.

Great trip! I missed toilet paper, real toilets and water---quite an adventure. They have already invited Mom and me back. We’ll see if we decide to do it and if they get more funding to have us.

The Christmas Card that never was...

This should have been our Christmas Card and letter. Steve and I could not agree on a picture. We hoped to have taken a "snow" picture in Idaho, but it just never happened. Thanks for all of your cards!

Greetings from the Jensen Family,

We hope this letter finds you and your family happy, healthy, and enjoying the Holiday Season. Life has been good to the Jensens this past year, so we’ll just “cut to the chase” and fill you in on the highlights.

Amy just turned 4, and most people would never guess she has Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. She loves to jump on the trampoline, ride her tri-cycle everywhere, learned to swim this summer, and is regularly found climbing the counters to find hidden My Little Pony “treats”. We recently changed doctors and now see 2 phenomenal doctors at Stanford Medical Center. Amy’s last lab results gave us huge encouragement that she is well on her way of putting this into remission. She also started preschool this year and is having fun making new friends.

Rachel is now 9. Her pleading and begging finally paid off and she convinced her parents to buy her a hamster for her birthday. His name is Nibbles. She still loves soccer and is currently playing in a year-round indoor league. She is the family baby sitter, being that she is more qualified than her older brother. She recently formed a club with her friends called the “Mouse Town Club” (not sure where the name came from). Basically, the club is a good excuse for her and her friends to get together and play…but at least they have an agenda. She still likes to draw and write books in her free time.

Alec is now 12. He loves being involved in the young men organization of our church. He also is quite involved in scouting and earned 10 merit badges over the summer. He continues to love swimming and played in some junior golf tournaments this past summer. This coming year he will be trying his hand in karate, something he has wanted to do for years. While he has always liked the girls, it is hitting full force now (although he won’t publicly admit it).

Trisha is busy keeping the house running at “peak performance”. She keeps up with the kid’s schedules, which seems to get more hectic as the years go buy. She finally replaced her “lemon” sewing machine for a much better one that sparked her faded interest in sewing. She made several things this past year, including a darling TinkerBell costume for Amy that she wore on Halloween.

Steve turned that magic age this year where rigor mortis sets in after a hard fought game of flag football. Trisha threw a huge surprise birthday party for him and invited all his local friends. His job content increased this year so he’s busier than normal for the time being. He is now involved in shipments of plutonium “parts” in addition to the test work he oversees.

Fun activities this past year included a trip to Disneyland, camping at Lake Tahoe, and our yearly visit to McCall, Idaho for some scenic mountain beauty and lots of golf.

We would like to wish your and your family a Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year.

Hi family! We're in the 21st century. Let's try a blog! What a fun way to say hi to everyone and for the counsins to send fun little notes to each other.

Love Kath

Homer Jensen Family News!

Happy New Year Family!