OUCH!!!

It's a good thing Eric is home- because I fell and busted my ankle last night. Luckily he was here to take me to the doctor and all that fun stuff. I slipped down the stairs in front of our house. They looked dry but were just slippery enough for me to go down like a rag doll. I landed in a pile with my foot in a twisted position. I knew right away it was not good. So I layed there crying like a baby and not wanting to move. It's a clean break at the bottom of my tibia. So I will be on crutches and in a cast for 6 weeks. Lovely. Just how I wanted to spend my holidays. So being the good man that he is- Eric was able to cancel his next trip to help nurse me back to getting around. Can't put weight on it yet as it is very painful still. Keeping it up and icing it is helping. I had a shot for the pain last night and it is just wearing off. Need to get to the pharmacy and pick up my prescription drugs. The bad part about narcotics is they make me terribly nauseous- so I have to take another pill to be able to keep it down. FUN! Anyhoo- my lunch is ready. Thanks Eric!!

I am back

After about 20 hours on 3 planes I finally made it back home. The driver picked me up at the SLC airport and brought me home. He carried my bags in the house and the kids got a big kick out of seeing him. As he got ready to leave they all said "Good Bye Driver". It was very funny.

Now for a recap of the last day in Taiwan. At the meeting we had about 125 people which is a good turnout. Unfortunately, I completely froze when I went on stage. I had to read the majority of the presentation. I am not pleased with my performance. I hope I get a chance to redeem myself. We rode the bullet train to the city where the meeting took place. At one point the display inside the train said "your current speed is 294 kmh. Which is about 185 mph. I must say that it didn't seem that fast.

When we got back to Taipei we went out for dinner. The food was great. I also set up the car service for the next morning to take me to the airport. So at 4:45 am Sunday I went down stairs and checked out of the hotel. They informed me that my car was on it's way. After about 5 minutes the 740Li pulled around and as I got in they brought out a tray with my breakfast on it. So here I am in a 740Li having breakfast in Taipei. What a life.

After 4 hours I landed in Singapore. I believe the Singapore airport is probably the nicest airport I have ever been in. I purchased some pearls for Jenn and #1 and a few others things for #2 and #3. Then it was back on a plane for another 15 hours to LAX which is the worst airport I have ever been in. After 2 hours and a beer later it was on another plane for the 1.5 hour flight to SLC.

All in all it was a great trip.

We miss you daddy!

We take Eric for granted. It isn't until he is gone that we realize how much he does for our family. Our life is turned completely upside down when he is away. We have been spending the week with Grama Laura because I work nights and need someone to stay with the kids. Then she gets the kids up, dressed, fed, and meets me at the Jr. High so that we can get everywhere else on time. Next we drop Tana off, and then Justice and I hurry back to WJ for our preschool classes. We have eaten out quite a bit this week, because, let's face it- I hate to cook, and spaghetti is only good for two meals at the most. We had a huge snowstorm, and although we had fun with snowballs, shoveling, and seeing the lights- we couldn't get in our driveway. Too steep and snowy. I think I have put about 500 miles on the van this week with extra driving back and forth to moms. Here are a list of things that we have missed about Eric this week.
1. Being able to sleep in our own beds.
2. Not getting to bed on time (I am a pushover, and not very organized either)
3. Home cooked meals (enough with the cereal already)
4. The 6:00 welcome daddy home routine
5. Roxy needs her belly rubbed by daddy. No one else can do it right. She follows us around like our shadow in need of more love.
6. Having the driveway shoveled properly- he salts it and has some magic way of getting the van in without sliding down and nearly hitting our other car. I really miss that.
7. Kisses
8. Silly jokes
9. Adult conversation
10. Another parent to help with homework, squabbles, reading books, playing games, and making those damn Transformers actually Transform.
11. Someone to remember to turn on and off the Christmas lights.
12. Bear Hugs and neck rubs.
Hurry home sweetie!!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

I think it is about time you got to see what I am seeing. Here are some pictures of the museum I went to today.

Taipei Day 2

It is 8:41 am on Friday December 7th. Last night my translator and her mother took me to a wholesale street market and to dinner. The market was buzzing and you could just about find anything you want. I made some purchases most of which I cannot say here because they are gifts for my loved ones. However I did spend $900 on a pair of shoes. Ahhhhh the high life. It is so fun to say "Yes these shoes cost me $900." It is the life of a wannabe big shot. Did I say it was $900 Taiwan dollars. That is about $27 US. I think I will stick to the $900 story and leave off the currency exchange.

I am feeling very good this morning. Had a great breakfast and now it is off to see more of Taipei. We are going to the National Museum and to the worlds tallest building today and i hope more shopping. The food last night was great. We had about 6 different dishes all of which were very hot. My nose was running but it was a good kind of hot. Good stuff

There seems to be a lot of political stuff going on here. From what I can gather the current government is trying to erase some of Taiwan's history. It seem crazy but political parties are fighting about such things as the color of the roof of a building.

Tomorrow morning I will be taking the train down to the meeting site. It is about one hour south of Taipei. I don't know what route the train takes but I hope to get to see some of the country side. From my hotel room I can see mountains. It is very green and the clouds hang low in the mornings it is very pretty.

Taiwan

Well I am out traveling again. This month will be as heavy as ever. I am currently in Taiwan until Sunday. On Wednesday it is off to Canada and Nashville until Friday then on Sunday it is off to NJ/NY until Thursday. All told I will be home for 3 days from the 4th -the 20th.

Enough of that. At 2:40 Dave (the care service guy) picked me up and took me to the airport for the first leg of the trip. LAX is not my favorite airport. After a 4 hour layover I boarded a Singapore Air flight for Taipei. Singapore Air really has customer service dialed in. They actually seem to care about their customers. About an hour after takeoff I took 2 Tylenol PM and before I knew it we only had 3 hours left on the flight. The flight was 13.5 hours long so I slept for about 9 of it. It was great.

After clearing customs I walked out to find my name on a sign and this guy running up to me saying "this way" So he takes my bag and walks very quickly out to the street and calls someone. About a minute later a 740LI (I think) picks me up. The driver says "Good morning Sir" and drives me about 30 minutes to the Hotel where I am met by another guy opening my door and unloads my bag. I walk into the Hotel and up to the desk and the person behind the desk say "Welcome Mr. Nugent". Ya know, a guy could get used to this type of treatment.

I will be meeting with my translator later this afternoon and I hope I can talk them into taking me to a night market. That sounds fun. Because I am going to be gone all month I need to find something cool for my Jenn. All in all so far things have gone very well. The meeting is on Saturday and I am feeling pretty good about it. I will update daily so stay tuned.

A day in the life of Sierra

Sierra had one crazy day today. Her cheer squad had competition today at the U of U, and so they were excused from school for the day. I still had to teach this morning, and she was going to be picked up by her carpool. So while she was home alone waiting, the utility man came to look at our meter. He has to come in the backyard because that is where the meter is. Well she freaked out thinking someone was trying to break into the house. So she calls her friend (who lives just down the street), and they told her to hurry over to their house. So she runs out of the house with just her cheer top and spankies on (what they wear under their cheer skirt), and down to her friends house. They came back with her to see what was going on and figured it all out. Well now she was locked out of the house. So she had to break into the house to get the rest of her clothes and stuff for the competition. I swear that girl is such a goofball!! Everything ended up fine but it was a rough start for the morning to say the least.
The competition went great. They did a fantastic job. They took first in their division!! They didn't have anyone else competing against them- but they did score higher than a lot of the high school teams that were there. It was a fun day. The whole team and their families went to Applebees after to celebrate. It was nuts- but the girls had a great time hanging out and being silly. Justice and Tana were flirting with the kids sitting by them- I guess they are learning that from Sierra???? or Eric???? I guess it is a toss up. Then it was off to dance for 3 more hours to rehearse for their upcoming Jazz Game performance. Ahh, the life of the young and talented!!