The Crash Heard Round Our Car

Jim and I have season tickets to the Fort Worth Symphony Pops Series. Last weekend, they were featuring the Von Trapp Family Singers (great-grandchildren of the Captain in the Sound of Music). The concert wasn't as good as the previous Billy Joel-themed concert; but, it was still really cool to listen to music from the movie and see the family members actually wearing Maria's dresses.

On our way home, Jim and I were talking about the concert (because we are cultural like that). All the sudden, there was a deafening crash and the windshield in my SUV exploded. In an instant, I was covered in glass shards -- head to toe. My windshield was a disaster. I guess I've watched too many Dateline or 20/20 stories on violence, because all I could think was, "I've been shot." I actually asked Jim if I had been shot. He slowed down and I started taking off layers looking for any wounds. No bullet wounds. But, tons of glass and an anxiety-induced irregular heartbeat. Once we got home, we analyzed the situation and filed a police report. Someone had thrown a baseball, or larger, sized rock at our car and hit the windshield. Because we have safety glass, the inside layer of glass exploded into the car; but, the object did not come into the car. It simply hit, left a crater, and bounced off.

We are so lucky. I hear stories of people get seriously injured or dying from situations like this. A little bit of a different angle, better aim by the idiot rock thrower, or non-safety glass could have caused major problems. In the end, I just had a piece of glass stuck in my hand, causing some minor bleeding. If you think I'm a exaggerator, check out these photos (click to enlarge). They don't do the crater justice. But, it's the best I could do at midnight.

Sticks and Stones

The rain has stopped and our builder has really ramped up construction on the new house. Thank goodness! We have just 12 days left in our current house and are getting more and more eager to move to our very own Barbie Dreamhouse (that's my nickname for the new place...and no, I don't consider myself "Barbie"). Check out this week's progress (and the port a potty) -- in just about 8 days we've gone from dirt to a slab to a partial frame. I've put the newer pictures at the top. You can click on any picture in our blog to enlarge.

Moderate Murph

Those of you who know me (and now Jim), know how much I/we love our dog Murphy Americus Appel Turner. Murphy was my sole friend for the first 8 months I lived in Kansas. She saw me through the loss of two grandparents, the loss of my childhood dog, a bad work situation, the sale of my childhood house, etc. She was the first person to meet and interrogate my husband. Murph and I are besties. However, those of you who know me know that Murph is affectionately known as Fat Murph because of a little weight problem. I've tried for years to help Murph...we started walking 3 miles a day (which caused me to lose 35 pounds and caused her to gain 8); we reduced her food consumption; and we switched her to food made from yogurt. Nothing has worked and at 55 pounds the vet finally labeled her as morbidly obese last year.

Before

Jim took Murph to the vet early this year for some shots. While there, the vet recommended that we swap some of Murph's food with plain Cheerios. Apparently, they are non-caloric for dogs. So we did. As of last week, Murph is down to 43 pounds in just 9 months (and I am up 5-7 pounds...why is it that we have this inversely proportional weight relationship?). We are so excited for Murph! She is more active and happier. In honor of her new figure, we have changed her name from Fat Murph to Moderate Murph. What a difference a year makes.

After

Have a Happy, Homeless Thanksgiving

We did it...we sold our house! Of course, its not a done deal until we close on November 25. There's still time for the buyers to back out or for the people buying their house to back out (which would cause our contract to go belly up). But, based on all of our research, this looks like a safe bet.

We got just about what we wanted/needed in terms of the selling price. However, we had to make one huge compromise -- we have to close AND be out of our house the day before Thanksgiving. So, we're homeless for Thanksgiving and can't host my family as we had planned. Our families have been great. Jim's brother Jeff is letting us move into the upstairs portion of his house in Arlington until our new house is done in February. Jim's parents have invited my parents to come to their house for Thanksgiving. My parents have volunteered to keep Fat Murph until our new house is ready. It will be a crazy holiday season and start of 2010; but, when it's all over, we'll have a fantastic new house.

Here's a photo from the construction. It's about a week old. We haven't been able to get any new photos because of the crazy rain we've been having. I did drive by this morning and they are working on the house. We should have a slab next week!

The Message

On Tuesday my friend Brooke and I decided to escape work for an hour and enjoy a healthy lunch at Jason's Deli. We beat the crowd; but still had to wait a few minutes for our lunch to come. About halfway through our meal, a woman (probably in her mid to late 60s, wearing a knit shirt, frumpy jeans, and some beat up tennis shoes) got up from her table and starting walking toward us. I assumed she was walking to the salad bar or to get a drink refill. About the time she got by our table, she was really close to me. Again, I just assumed she was moving over to allow people to pass her in the aisle. The next thing I know, she bends down, puts her arms around me (while I'm seated, eating my lunch), and puts her face almost against mine. She looks me straight in the eyes and said, "I've been sent to you to deliver a message from God." I almost laughed in the woman's face. But, I listened. She proceeded to witness to me about God's love and how I should accept and embrace it. Are you kidding me? Her message was congruent with my beliefs; but to interupt my lunch, assume I am a non Christian, and then to actually touch me was just too much. After she finished "the message," she got back up and sat down two tables away. She watched me eat the remainder of my meal -- staring the whole time. Brooke and I ate as fast as we could and raced out to the car. The minute we got in, we lost it in laughter. I've always told people that weird things happen to me. Finally, I have a witness. Brooke, glad you can vouch for the story of The Message.

Construction Update

This week was huge in terms of our new house. Jim was off last Wednesday and decided to drive by our lot. He called me while I was at work to let me know that our permits had been approved and they were actually building (I mean, moving dirt) on our lot! We both went over after work, found a marking on the pavement to line up a tripod, and took a photo. Our goal is to take 2-3 photos per week from this same spot to show the progress. Here's photo 1 from October 7. As you can see, our neighborhood is carved into a hill. The houses in the background are mansions over in the country club. Not a bad view!



We went back by on October 10. They already had the framing up for our foundation. They were going to do all the plumbing connections on October 10-12 and pour the foundation today. But, we kind of had a monsoon.

Since it rained all weekend and the early part of this week, construction stopped. To keep things moving, we had a long meeting with our builder. We had been told that our house would be finished some time around mid-March (which to me means April...I never believe construction estimates). However, to our surprise, the builder has moved up our estimated completion date to the end of January or early February. Apparently, with the cooler weather, slow economy, smaller size of our neighborhood, crews that work 7 days a week, and our decisiveness on selections, they are able to go faster on our house than their average client. We're so excited and reality that we need to sell our house is starting to kick in.

Stay tuned for more construction pictures and updates on some CRAZY things we've been up to.

The Reason We Swore We Would Never Blog

So, we clearly have not done so well keeping this thing updated. That's why I hate things like this...there's so much maintenance. Not to make excuses, but here are a few reasons why we've not posted in so long:

• Jim's workload has almost doubled due to flu shot season and the "threat" of swine flu in Texas. He's been working almost every day for weeks.
• I have been work 14-16 hours per day for the last six weeks on TCU Family Weekend. Luckily it went off without many hitches this past weekend. And, the weekend set attendance records for TCU.
  
• My cousin Chris got married in Burlington, Vermont on October 3. The whole Appel family made the journey to the wedding, since we are the only family he has (besides his parents, of course). After the wedding, we extended our trip for a couple of days in order to see the foliage, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Boston.
  
• In preparation for the move to the new house and the sale of our current house, we moved about 1/3 of our house in a storage unit...in the pouring rain...alone. It was a rough day. But the house looks great for potential buyers.
  
• We put our house up for sale. We got an offer after only 7 days. We've countered and are just waiting. This may be the lucky owner or we could just continue showings with potential buyers. Either way, we're encouraged, because houses in our neighborhood are moving pretty quickly at good prices.
  
• We had 3 weeks to choose everything for our new house. By everything, we mean not only colors, flooring, and structural options; but, where we want each electrical plug to be, how many lights we want under our kitchen cabinets, which side of the patio we want our grill hook-up to go, etc. That's a lot to think about.
• The Beatles game was released on RockBand. Now, this was not that big of a deal in the Turner household. Until...we learned we could use our Guitar Hero instruments. So, our band Sick Nasty is going retro and learning a few "new" tunes.
  

We've posted pictures of the wedding and our trip on our Flickr account. Hope you enjoy!

We're (Kind Of) Expecting

For those of you who do not know, Jim and I are expecting to move into our brand new house in March. We signed the contract with our builder two weeks ago, picked out our interiors last week, and are awaiting ground breaking any day now. We'll keep y'all updated with pictures of the construction.

In the meantime, our house goes on the market October 1ish. If it sells before March, we will be so happy; but, homeless. Right now, the plan is to move in with Jim's parents or brother. Murph will go to Tyler. We're not looking forward to living out of suitcases and a storage unit. But, it's a small price to pay for a beautiful house with almost double the square footage.

Let Me Explain...Or Apologize

Packing for two weeks overseas is difficult. So, as you can see from our Flickr, we took the easy way out. We each took about 4 pairs of shorts (all the same style, just different colors) and about 6 shirts (again, the same style just different colors), and mixed/matched/rewore the entire trip. Sorry we look so homely and gross. We only had a few options...and one pair of shoes each! Thank you Keen for making the world's best, waterproof all-terrain sandals. And, thank you Backwoods in Fort Worth for selling them and finding me the green ones...the "neon" blue was just terrible.

Where Are All the Pictures?

So these posts are terribly long and mostly without photos. "Why?," you might say. Because, the photos are all on Flickr! Click the link on the right to see our Flickr gallery. Once in Flickr, click on the "Slideshow" icon in the upper right. It will show you the highlights of the last year of our lives. Pictures are in order from most recent to oldest. Jim and I love to take photos. Our Flickr only contains about 150 of the more than 7,000 photos we've taken since we met in November 2007.

Now for the Fun Stories

Now that you've heard the background, it's story time. It wouldn't be a Kim (Appel) Turner adventure without a few great stories along the way. I'll give you a listing of my favorites. Some funny, some not so funny. Eventually, I'll record the details of the best stories in my blog. They are in order based on our itinerary.

Memories from Hong Kong
1. Riding a glass bottom cable car nine miles through the mountains.
2. Seeing the world's largest sitting Buddha.
3. Eating lunch with monks in a Buddhist monastery. Tofu and spicy peas are not my friends.
4. Being asked, for literally the 10,000th time, if we wanted to buy a custom made business suit. Do we look like we wear business suits?

5. Smelling, having sweat stains on my clothes, wearing the same shorts for the third straight day and asking a $1000 a night hotel if we met the dress code to have afternoon tea at their restaurant. The answer...yes, because my sandals were closed-toed. The answer to the extremely dressed-up, affluent women behind us...no, because one of them had on strappy sandals with heels.

6. Seeing 7 Elevens and Circle K convenience stores everywhere.

Memories from Xi'an
1. Not being let into the country (Hong Kong is not really considered China) because Jim supposedly had the swine flu.
2. Jim being taken away by a military nurse for testing of swine flu.
3. Me being held "captive" by a military man with a machine gun because I was traveling with someone who "had" the swine flu.
4. Being the last people in the airport at midnight in a country that didn't speak English.
5. Taking a "disco" cab into town and thinking we had been kidnapped.
6. Staying in an 1980s style dumpy hotel with shag carpet.
7. Arriving at the city bus station with literally 20,000 other people and trying to find the right bus.
8. Riding a city bus for one hour to get to the Terra Cotta Warriors.
9. Seeing the Terra Cotta Warriors in all their splendor. I mean that - it was truly breathtaking.
10. Riding a bicycle built for two in the rain on the old city wall.
11. Eating dumplings shaped like little animals...and full of ground up little animals (chicken, duck, frog, fish, etc.).
12. Going to a Chinese theatre and music show and having my husband fall asleep on the front row.
13. Being glad that we were only staying in Xi'an for 36 hours.


Memories from Beijing
1. The smog. We never saw the sky.
2. Seeing the Bird's Nest and Water Cube Olympic venues.
3. Having people ask to take their picture with us in the Olympic venues.
4. Staying at a hotel where you can shower while sitting on the toilet.
5. Finding the world's best Italian food...in China.
6. Going to Tienanmen Square.
7. Waiting over an hour just to walk into the Forbidden City because there are so many people in China.
8. Going to the Temple of Heaven and feeling like we were at Epcot.
9. Attending an acrobatic show in a "theatre."
10. Journeying to the Summer Palace and climbing what felt like a million stairs to a temple overlooking the entire park.
11. Showing off my bargaining skills to Jim by bartering with local vendors.
12. Going to the night market to sample some local delicacies -- fried roaches, starfish, seahorses, baby birds, etc....and wimping out.
13. Finding the world's best Kung Pao Chicken.
14. Riding the city bus over an hour to the Great Wall.
15. Meeting an English-speaking friend (from eastern Europe) on the bus to the Great Wall.
16. Watching my new friend get hit by a moped while we were searching for a taxi for the last leg of our journey to the Great Wall.
17. Watching Jim get run over by a bike while tending to our new friend's moped-accident injuries.
18. Seeing the Great Wall for the first time.
19. Hiking the Great Wall in the most extreme heat ever.
20. Stepping in human poop at the Great Wall and having my sandals smell for days.
21. Riding a bobsled down the Great Wall...and being told to "slow down."
22. Seeing a man who had been dead 20+ years lie in a glass box.
23. Watching people wail over the dead body of the person who oppressed their lives by imposing Communism on them.


Memories from Shanghai
1. Staying in a 5-star hotel...for $70 a night.
2. Being in a city with a population of 16.7 million people.
3. Going up the second tallest building in the world...and once at the top, looking UP at the tallest building in the world.
4. Taking a shady train to an even shadier city known for its Chinese gardens.
5. Sitting eight cars away from Jim on the shady train.
6. Sitting next to the only English-speaking woman on the entire shady train...and being dressed EXACTLY alike.
7. Being grateful for Burger King.
8. Getting dropped off at the "Hard Rock Cafe," which was like a hookah lounge named "Hard Rock Cafe." They did not serve American food or have rock and roll artifacts.
9. Convincing Chinese people that we know Yao Ming personally.
10. Taking the world's fastest train to the airport.
11. Arriving in Chicago 40 minutes after we left Shanghai.
12. Eating Mexican food when we got back to DFW.

If Only We Spoke Chinese and Could Draw Those Little Pictures

Jim and I arrived in Hong Kong the evening of July 6. We stayed there about 3 days before flying to Xi'an (home of the Terra Cotta Warriors) where we spent about 36 hours. Then, we boarded another sketchy Chinese airline and flew to Beijing. After 5 days in Beijing we flew to Shanghai for 3 days and then home to the States.

The trip was amazing. But felt long. We woke up every morning between 6:30-7:30am and stayed out until around 11:30pm at night. Down time was rare and the temperatures outside were intense. Also intense -- the lack of English-speaking people. I know what you are thinking, "Kim, did you really expect anyone to speak English?" The answer: kind of. Having just hosted the Olympics and being a really technologically advanced country, I expected some English speakers and some English signs. There were next to none. Thank goodness for our Frommer's guidebooks. The nice people at Frommer's had everything in English, with little Chinese characters out to the side. We would flag down a cab, jump in,point to something in our book, and be whisked away through the narrow streets of China at lightning speed. We traveled the entire country on blind faith...just trusting that none of our cabbies would harm us.

Several times, we did try our best to speak and read the language. After all, we didn't want to be the "dumb Americans." But, have you ever looked at those pictures? They all look the same. Little variations in line length or waviness can change the entire word. And, the characters come in "fonts" just like you have on your computer -- handwriting styles, italics, traditional, modern. We learned quickly just to pay an expert, I mean a cab driver, and to pray during the ride.

Some Background...Some Very Long, Text Only Background

For someone who was a journalism major and loves to talk...I am not a good communicator. I realized after we left for our vacation this summer, that I had not told many people about our plans. So, here's a little back story.

Jim and I LOVE the Olympics. I admit that I tear up anytime I hear the Olympic song or see someone get their medal. Last summer we spent two full weeks glued to the Beijing Olympics. We got so excited that we even bought an Olympics-themed game for our Wii and starting playing it religiously. At that point we decided two things: 1) we had to go to China and 2) we had to go to Vancouver in February 2010 for the Winter Olympics. Most of the time, my crazy ideas don't come true. We looked up plane tickets to China and found them really expensive and beyond our reach. Strike one. We looked up tickets to the Olympics and realized we would have to get into a lottery and that our chances were slim. Strike two. We also looked into lodging in Vancouver and found that everything was booked up (yes...a full 20 months in advance they were all booked). Strike three. I was pretty discouraged. Thankfully, the wedding starting occupying my thoughts.

In early spring, I starting getting antsy and the travel bug hit. I don't know how to explain it. It's almost like I have cabin fever and just need to get our of the Tyler-Arlington-Fort Worth pattern. And not any trip will do. I'm in this rut of needing to take "adventures." I began researching China again. To my amazement, tickets had dropped almost $1000 per person. I called Jim and we snatched up a pair. So, with no knowledge of China, we were now the proud of owners of round trip plane tickets.

We left July 5 (the one year anniversary of our engagement...for those of you who are sappy) from DFW. After a horribly long flight, we landed in Tokyo, Japan and boarded another flight to Hong Kong. We toured the country for two weeks and came back to the States (Shanghai to Chicago to DFW) on July 17. It's probably the hardest trip I've been on in my life -- even harder than Africa. But, it was also one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. More to come in the next post.

P.S. We finally got tickets and lodging for the Olympics. We will be there the first week of the games. I'll write something as February gets closer.