Birthday Boys

I've been too busy and it's been too long! We're having a birthday boy bonanza this weekend!
My baby Bry is now 13 - an official teenager! I keep teasing him that I see pimples growing every time I look at him!
Unfortunately, he was sick for his birthday - he had a baseball tournament game he had to miss, and I had to stay home with Logan who was also sick while Bry, Boyd and Spencer went and saw the Hulk and then went to a Crashup Derby. They had a blast, but we all agreed it would have been more fun if we were all together!

Here's a snapshot of Bryant at age 13:

Favorite movie: "Iron Man"
Favorite color: "Blue"
Favorite Sport: "Duhhh, Tennis. Come-on Mom, it's baseball!"
Favorite Dessert: "Ice Cream" (we had Superman ice cream for his birthday)
FAvorite thing to do: "Play with my friends/hang out"
Favorite band: "The Killers or Poison" Mom: "Poison, what? How do you know who they are?" Bryant: "Poison! I know who Poison is, they're like 80's singers!"\
Things he hates most: "Chores and working in the yard outside"
Favorite food: "Chinese! Of course Mom!"

Bryant, by Mom
Twinkling blue eyes
Mischevious grin (ready to break out at any time)
Braces that I'm always telling him to scrub
Ultra messy room
Doesn't complain so much when I ask him to shower anymore
Getting more into clothes/shoes
Funnier than all get-out
Loves baseball
Enjoying scouts more
Loves to jump on the trampoline
Enjoys air-soft wars with the neighbors
Loves to babysit (and the kids he babysits in the ward love him too!)
School still really isn't his thing
He's absolutely delightful to be around (when he's not bugging his brothers)
Loves to bug brothers!
Loves to be with his family
Honors his Priesthood
Cleans the kitchen very well
Super smart
Distracted easily
Excellent impressions (ask him to do his Waterboy, Goonies, Nacho Libre, Napoleon, Benchwarmers, or Happy Gilmore impressions, they're hilarious!)
Kind
Loves to stick his head out of the car window like a dog!
Good photographer
Loves to ride his bike (let's not talk about his Dad's bike that he left to be stolen!)
All around good kid!





I Love you Bry!

What a great weekend!

I am home! What a wonderful weekend indeed! We had such nice weather! We attended one of Logan's friends' baptism's yesterday, and today we were able to go to Carrie and Sam's baby blessing. I'm so glad that I get to induct them into the 3-boys club. I am the official President and new members don't come along everyday. It's a very prestigious club, and it's pretty hard to get into. Well, we all can't be winners, right? These are the things I tell myself to not be so sad about not having a daughter...
I just have to post a bit about little Sammie. First of all, I didn't realize he's the second counselor in the bishopric! Are we really that old? Oh my gosh!
Secondly, I saw Sam really as a grown up today. What a neat sight! He bore his testimony and I was so proud of him! I just cried and cried!
He was always such a good boy, but to see him grow into a wonderful dad and husband is such a neat thing. Who would of thought that the boy that taught me the f word would now be serving in the bishopric?! Or the boy that would take off his diaper in the road and run around naked? Or let's see, the boy who got into his mom's candy from her candy store and gave our free baseball bubblegums to the neighborhood? Ahh, or the boy that hit his sister in the face in a pillow fight, but "forgot" there was a book in his pillowcase and gave her a bloody nose? I also remember the "bird lover", Mr. Clumsy, his doll, or dumping turkey grease all over the Morphin's newly washed truck. Shauna kicking down our huts, eating dry jello powder from the downstairs bathroom (I know, the Sweets always had jello in their downstairs bathroom!) and spending lots of time in the ditch behind our house. Now those really were good times!
It was so good to see all of the Sweets today. I feel myself very lucky to have friends such as the Bezzants and Sweets that truly are family. We really coudln't be any more related or any closer than any family member.
How I wish I had a photo of Sam when he was little to post. He was such a doll!
Kudos to Carrie and Sam - they have created such a strong and wonderful family. They are a great example to us all!



I just had to add a photo - what's a posting without one? I love this one of Laurel, me and Ryan. 3 of the Notorious Hansen 7.

I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!

'CAUSE I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN
WHERE AT LEAST I KNOW I'M FREE!
AND I WON'T FORGET THE MEN WHO DIED
AND GAVE THAT RIGHT TO ME
AND I'LL PROUDLY STAND UP
NEXT TO YOU
AND DEFEND HER STILL TODAY
'CAUSE THEIR AIN'T NO DOUBT I LOVE THIS LAND!
GOD BLESS THE USA!

I know, the thought of this song makes you shed a tear. Me too.

Okay, the best way to describe China is to liken it to a phase I went through in 6th grade. I used to only do the front of my hair, hoping that no one would pay attention to the back of my hair. China's the same.

Here's a photo of one of the hotels we stayed in. Gorgeous right?

Then inside it's a different story. Our room in this hotel smelled of old smoke and mildew so bad. The carpets were filthy, the walls were filthy and it looked like someone had barfed on our ottoman. Here's a toilet in one of our rooms:



You could also purchase men's triangle underwear with matching woof socks in one of my rooms. The socks are of the "human fashion". It's a good thing.



Here is the "shower" in my friend's room. There wasn't one! It just had a shower head sticking out of the wall and you shut the wooden bathroom door and the water just pounded against the door and flowed out of the bathroom onto the carpet. The carpet was all black and moldy outside the bathroom. The smell was so bad in this hotel I woke up a few times I'm sure because of it. Shudder.



I walked for 2 weeks straight and didn't want to eat a thing. If I could have one wish it would be that the feeling of not wanting to eat would stay with me forever.
However, unfortunately it hasn't. Dang it.

A few of the delicacies:




Now you can see why I didn't have an appetite. I saw some of the grossest things I have EVER seen! We basically went to a pet store and we were told to pick something from the grimy fish tanks to eat. The man kept pointing to a turtle and saying "good". I said "No way! That's a pet!" They eat shrimp with their heads on and their eyes sticking out. It was so gross...

The pollution was so terrible. I went to all of the big cities in China, with the exception of Hong Kong. Shanghai, Beijing, GuongZhou, Shenzen and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head. All of the cities had terrible pollution, Shanghai being the least. We all thought that a major storm was coming through which is why it was so gray and dark. But no, that is how it is. It's terrible and I can see why there's so much hullabaloo about the Olympics. There's no way I would want to run (I don't want to run in clean air either) over there!




The English translation was hilarous. Here is a sign in the "bathroom" (it's a hole in the floor and they don't flush their tissue. The smell was awful! Boyd said they are called squat pots. Needless to say, not all ladies have a good aim so it was frequently hard to squat while my feet were slipping in pee. I can't believe I didn't take a pic! I'm a Hansen, right?):



And here's lunch. I guess you could describe much of the food as "dump" aka poop!




It was really a great trip. We did so much. Now it's time to be serious. Something that I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around is how we are all children of our Heavenly Father, and he loves us all the same. But why are some given so much more than others? It makes me feel guilty and grateful. It makes me never want to ask for another thing.

I'm so glad to be home to my family! Boyd was so sweet and we often got teary eyed the few times we got to talk. Boy, does absence make the heart grow fonder!

Goodbye China, Hello America!

23 hours and counting until I'll be leaving!



Things I can't wait to leave:



Cigarette smoke

Pee soaked squat pots

Chinese food

Sore feet

Dirty air

Dirtier hotel rooms

B.O.

No English

Stinkiest smells EVER!

Sweat/Humidity



Things I can't wait to see:



My family

Blue sky

Clean air

Clean bed

Clean carpet

Clean people

Good food

My friends

My home



Things I can't wait to smell:



Everything not in China

P.S.

I am leaving for China today! I'm going for business and am looking forward to opening some direct business relations there. However, I'm really struggling with leaving the boys. All 4 of them. I miss them so much when I'm gone and I was just gone to Bermuda! I hope the time goes by fast, but gone nearly 2 weeks and sharing a room probably won't go too fast.
I went to Walmart tonight (which I NEVER do) and bought some last minute things for the trip. Well, I thought my boys had grabbed the bags (everything was relatively small), but didn't realize until we got to the car that they hadn't! We ran back in and the checker said she didn't have our bags and said that she even checked when we left. Well, we didn't have them! Needless to say, I have to go in at 7:00 in the morn and have the manager watch the security tape to see what happened. If it shows that the person after me took the bags, they'll replace my stuff. It was about $100.00 worth of stuff!
So, ching wada pigu (I have not idea how to spell chinese) and hun cho! Translation: kiss my but, how smelly! I'm sure I'll make lots of new friends!

NERD PATROL

I couldn't put this in the last blog, because it really deserved a posting of it's own. For some reason, I didn't catch a pic of Camie - sorry, but you should be actually pretty glad I'm not adding you to the Nerd Patrol.

We rented scooters on the island for the 4 days we were there. I thought "Hey, it has to be safe. The island is only 20 square miles, the top speed limit is 25, and they let retarded tourists ride their scooters. It has to be safe, right?". Well I was wrong, horribly wrong.

To start, if you want to pee your pants laughing, just stand outside the rental shop and look at all the tards in the helmets. Then it gets better, everybody's helmets are on crooked, or 80 feet higher than their head, and they are all trying to ride a scooter for the first time. Either they start way too fast and then immediately do a brake check, or they totally wobble and almost loose it for a few seconds. It's so hilarious.

So, the locals drive cars, big rigs (yes, big trucks)and scooters and they do NOT DRIVE 25 MPH! They are going around you extremely fast, or tailing you from about 2 feet behind (I'm not kidding!). The roads are extremely winding and almost every curve is a blind curve. There are no shoulders or sidewalks on the side of the roads and no turn lanes either! We also had to get used to driving on the left hand side of the road.

I thought I was going to loose it when I saw Dad trying to show off to Brian and Laurel by passing them. As he was going around them and laughing at them he totally hit the curb and started wobbling. I thought he was going to biff it. The funniest was to see how freaked out he was trying to control the bike. It was so dang funny. I laugh even now as I think about it.

THEN, Camie was trying to make a right handed u-turn when she went straight into a wall/sign. I couldn't stop laughing then either.

I missed Mom's biff in front of the "trolley" that takes everyone from the ship to the dock yard. She had to stand up and get back on her bike in front of everyone. Pretty sweet.

So, the best part is, I thought to myself "this is going to be a piece of cake! I'm totally going to show off my sweet riding skills and leave everybody in the dust. They are going to be so jealous of how cool I am". Well, let's just say my skills are so incredibly awesome that I decided to amaze everyone with a stunt of my own. I PURPOSELY took my hog about 5 feet up a palm tree. I then PURPOSELY landed on my back and decided to see how much weight I could take on my legs. I MADE SURE my scooter landed right on my leg, and yes you guessed it, I was awesome. I only got a scratch on my toe, that's how good I am. I know, I know. You now you feel the jealousy that my family felt when they saw me pull that death defying stunt. Hot Rod, eat your heart out. Next time I'm going to charge admission. (Or at least make sure somebody has a camera so I can win America's Funniest Home Videos.)
My Boydie didn't look like a nerd! He's my stud on the road hog!

Bermuda 2008

Our cruise to Bermuda was so much fun. Not only was Bermuda really like the last photo I posted (stunningly beautiful), but the company was fantastic! It was my favorite cruise we've been on so far.

We sailed out of New York (I love NY) and stayed the entire time in Bermuda.


I had to post this photo, I look totally freaky, but hey, we flew the red eye out and hadn't had any sleep the night before! I post it because I kept making my dad laugh by saying "Please sir, can I have some more?" Check out the hat and stringy hair, you'll get it....

I have to admit, we only had 1 day of really good weather. This is what our first day looked like, however, it was still amazing.

Luckily, Laurel and I spent the 1 good day at the beach while the boys and Mom and Camie went deep sea fishing. Check out Laurel's blog to see the craziness that ensued at the beach. We spyed this chick in a short sleeved wet suit (let's just say she shouldn't have been wearing any sort of tight fitting ensamble) with long stringy hair that could have been a mullett. However, we couldnt' really tell because it was under a cowboy hat.

> The history of Bermuda is amazing, and many of the old buildings from the 1600's are still standing. It's so incredibly beautiful - the scenery and the historic buildings make an amazing combination. We visited the oldest church in the Western Hemisphere! Who would have thought it was in Bermuda!

Laurel kept me in laughing the entire time and I really just enjoyed Boyd and my family.