Franks and Beans

Yup, you guessed it! IT'S A BOY!!! How about that?! More importantly Nadia and baby are going through a normal pregnancy, which means everyone is good!

Zach was sure it was going to be a girl. Not to the point were we were buying all girls clothes, but we were focusing on girls names, neglecting any boys names.

Here is a pic of the little feller...

...and here is a picture of Nadia at 20 weeks...

That's it for now! Take care and God Bless!

Zai Jian,

Gu Rou Han & Zhang Hai

"Crazy Lives" - In the News

While at home over break, Nadia was interviewed by a reporter from the Saginaw News. Here is a link to the article...

http://www.mlive.com/saginaw/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-25/1200324060206830.xml&coll=9

What makes this bizarre, is this news story appeared on Eaton Corp.'s (Zach's employer) internal website under the heading "Eaton in the News." This web page is automatically set as the default home page for all employees, and is used as the starting point for almost all applications and programs (its a (small) e-world after all). Zach obviously stumbled across it in his normal everyday activities.

There are a few "inconsistencies" in the article Nadia would like to clarify:

1.) The only Chinese students in her school are Chinese-American. You must hold a foreign passport to attend this school.
2.) The article reads "The American teachers, on the other hand, place a greater emphasis on the punishment and misbehavior itself." What Nadia said to the reporter that the American teachers focus on addressing the situation, natural consequences and appropriate redirection. NO DAH!
3.) Not ALL American and Chinese, there is one British teacher.
4.) The school is only 3 blocks from our apartment, she doesn't need to take the subway to work.

BIG NEWS!

If you haven't heard already, NADIA IS PREGNANT!

Needless to say we are VERY excited! Both Nadia and baby are doing great! She is 20 weeks along and is expecting on June 10th. We hopefully will find out the gender next week.

NO! That is the umbilical cord!

We are happy with our doctor and hospital here in Beijing. The hospital is literally across the street from our apartment and our Doctor is American, educated in the USA. We haven't decided whether we are having the baby here or in the US, it really depends on Nadia and the baby's travel restrictions before & after birth.

Nadia at 17 weeks

Cousins

Best Christmas present EV-ER?!

Keep posted to the blog for more details!

Home for the Holidays

After our first 4 months, we made it back to the states for a few weeks of trying to see as many friends and family members as possible. Here are a few of the highlights.

Welcome home, Michigan missed you...

We FINALLY got to meet our nephew Mason. I'm sure he was also really happy to meet his Uncle Bubba and Tia 'Dia! Mason, Lisa, & Matt are all doing well and we hope to use Skype more frequently to watch him grow via web cam.

Made it up north...

Saw MSU beat Texas at the Palace...

NYE dinner with a few (30) friends at Webber's

Met up with the crew...

Went to a Trans Siberian Orchestra Concert...

& the Gunlock family Christmas...

Apologies and Salutations

We realize that it has been several months since we last posted on our blog. Over the holidays if you saw us, that was one of our promises. So here it is...

Updates since our last post:

We moved to a newer, more western apartment. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in our old apartment. Not to say that we didn't like staying there, because we did. Let's just say that the new apartment is more in line with what we would expect back in the States.

OLD NEW

Ahhh, yes, Thanksgiving dinner with the German and Danish couple. That was also an experieince in it's own. They are a family from Nadia's school and one day over a couple of pizzas, they were intrigued about our holiday and if it was really like what they see on TV. Well, our experiment worked. Suzanne located a bird (turkey being a rare commodity), Carston made good on the wine, Nadia and I made green bean cassarole (having to make our own Durkee's fried onions from scratch), and Betty & Ted (another American couple and teachers at Nadia's school) came through with the mashed potatoes and stuffing. Another Gernman/Chinese couple also joined us, and needless to say, it was a HIT!

Carston with the bird At the Sudhoff's dinner table

Next big event, our first Beijing (Peking) Duck experience. Obvioulsy we had heard much about it, and had never had it in the states, even though A Christmas Story is one of our favorite movies (Frah rah rah rah rah, rah-rah rah rah). It was also accompanied with traditional (bland) soup, tree ear (we think it is tree fungus), tofu veggie wraps (yummy), raw jelly fish pickled with
cabbage and red peppers, & several entire fish... on a stick. The way you eat the duck is to take a thin tortilla-like wrap, throw a sliver of onion, a sliver of cucumber, some "duck" sauce, & a few tasty slices of duck. Viola! You have yourself a duck taco!

Mmmmm psuedo onion rings NEMO!!!!! Can you find the duck?

Nadia went to Hong Kong on a school espianage trip, scoping out other international schools. She felt a little more at home with more westernized developments and restuarants. Ironically, Nadia tasted the deep fried goodness of Crispy Creme for the first time! Sometimes, you just need a donut. She was there long enough to determine that we need to go back and expore.

From the Star Ferry In the streets of Hong Kong

That's it for the most part. Zach is now more frequently at home these days. We still enjoy experiencing all the fine dinning that Beijing has to offer. Seriously, one of our favorite things to do on the weekend is explore the worldly cuisine available to us.

Take care, and remember, no parking of exploding cars here.