Brown Family

 I am experimenting with using my old blog when I get to China.  Let me know if you get this via email.

We have finished 2 weeks of teaching and have already developed such a love for our students.  Here are some of our favorite stories: For my writing classes I prepared a PowerPoint lesson on  sentence structure.   In class we were discussing complete sentences vs. fragments.  One of the students said, “This example is not a fragment.  It is imperative.”  Me:  "We will discuss this later during the semester.”  I had no idea what he was talking about!  So, I have spent some time this week reviewing grammar rules. We are loving our food experiences more and more.   We love going to the cafeteria with a couple of students and telling them to order something for us.   Every time it has been so much better than when we choose.     We tell them we like everything, but not too spicy for me.   My favorite so far is an eggplant/meat dish cooked in a ceramic pot with crispy rice.  One of Doug's favorite...

About a year ago we decided that we wanted to retire and go to China to teach English.  We had heard about the teaching program through BYU from several sources.  We decided this program was something we wanted to pursue.  We started our application process in December 2017.  We were notified in February that we were selected. The Chinese paperwork and application process was very intense and at times we wondered, "Is this worth it?" Well here we are living on the 6th floor of an apartment building in Nanjing, China. We are professors at Nanjing Tech University for the 2018 -2019 school year.  We have been in China for one week.  I think this adventure will be worth it, but we are still so new. We arrived at our apartment after a 27 hour trip.  Our foreign affairs expert is named MA.  She has an agenda where she has taken us to the bank, foreign affairs office, national hospital for blood work, phone company, subway station, bus stop, and to mee...

Parker's graduation from BYU Major:  Philosophy Minor:  Asian Studies

Doug coached Rachel's team in  soccer this year. They had a fun year, making it to the championship game where they lost in overtime 3-2.  We had a year-end pizza party at our house to celebrate the season.  After the party one of the player's parents asked Doug if he was going to coach again next year and thanked him for coaching this year.  He also asked him, "Do you have a lot of experience coaching?"  It made us laugh and also cry at the same time.  We realized that we have had a child play AYSO soccer for 23 straight years.  This was Rachel's last year.  I think our coaching experience improved through the years.....I coached Ashley's team when she was 5....named the "Mean, Green Soccer Machine."  We were defense oriented....we didn't score a goal the entire year!

We took a family trip to Yellowstone National Park and Teton National Park, and then dropped Morgan off at BYU-Idaho. Day 1: Brigham City Temple Openhouse   Day 2: Temple Day...Logan, Idaho Falls, Rexburg Day 3: Island Park...Church, Big Springs, "Red-Neck" wood gathering adventure Day 4 and 5: Yellowstone Day 6: Teton National Park

When Rachel and I were in Utah we bought this upholstery material at Hobby Lobby with the intention of covering all of our couch pillows.  Later during the trip we were shopping with Mary and she found new pillows at DI that were this color-scheme.  I was jealous of her purchase and thought to myself, "What was I thinking.....actually getting out my sewing machine."  Well Rachel and I dug out the machine and actually finished.  Now we are planning on painting our red wall this bluish/green color.

Great Reunion at the Whiting Homestead.  

Some pictures of our 4th of July weekend