catch up

So first off, here are some pictures from when we went swimming.... oh how I love my Pooh Bears :)

Rachel, Liz, Dale, Annika, Ginna, and DannyS ready for swimming. All the kids have to wear a swimcap in the pools... so they looked pretty goofy, but adorable!!

Danny S, Diane, Danny, Ginna, and Camilla getting impatient with Kristen teacher for wanting to get pictures before they ran into the pool :)

And this... tis nothing, just Camilla's scandalous 5 year old swimsuit :)

The past two weeks have been non-stop busy. It has been a little overwhelming at times, but great at the same time. I know I've said this many times before, but it just amazes me how fast time is flying here. I can't believe it's almost September. I officially hit my 6th month mark on September 5th.... maybe I'll go out for a special dinner to celebrate :) The reason these last few weeks have been so busy is because I have been teaching a summer intensive program on top of my own classes. It has been a lot of fun, but has definately worn me out :) We also had a situation with Hayli. Her grandmother got sick very quickly and Hayli ended up flying home right after work last Friday, so this week a few of us teachers have had to pick up her classes too. We also have had 2 new teachers come in this week, and I am the only foreign teacher around that is staying... so I'm also had to help them get situated and comfortable with everything... so fun!! I'm kinda a big deal :) jk

My birthday girls... Ginna, Annika and Rachel

This past week I also got to have a birthday party with my class. We had 3 birthdays in August.. Annika, Ginna, and Rachel. Annicka, of course, came all dressed out in her cute lil outfit and all hte girls were so excited and cute on their special day!! We had fun giving them presents and playing games for our class.

Last weekend, I stayed and PJ and Lori's. Lori and the girls got home earlier last week and it's been so great having them back! The girls have grown up so much over the summer and are still just as cute and ever. Little Lia is just about walking now... growing up so fast. Last Saturday, PJ and I went to the gym and we did a boxing workout. Going into the workout, I thought.. I'm a natural fighter, so this will come pretty naturally to me... boy was I wrong!! haha The workout kicked my hiney and I started to get sore 30 minutes after the workout. Just my upper body, but man... I'm sure I have never had such an intense workout!! I'm hoping I can work out some time each week or maybe every two weeks to hit the gym to do a boxing work out with PJ because I really enjoyed it and it felt great!!

I love my family!! They definately were feeling and hearing about my busy busy weeks I had been having and my awesome family decided to send me a little care package full of goodies and fun things AND great notes!! Dad... I am truly grateful for the effort and sacrifices you make to drive across the border to send me my packages!! You're amazing!! :) So here's the sad part... you see my dad sent teh package about 2 1/2 weeks ago. Usually it only takes a week to get here... so I kept bugging PJ and Lori to check their mail and they kept saying "nope, not here yet" I had almost lost hope when I got a call on Wednesday that it was here. I left right after work to go pick it up. Turns out hte mail man had put it in Lori's school rather than leaving it in their mailbox, so it had been sitting in the school for an extra week and a half.... my yummy cookies and squares were no longer and fresh and delicious and they woulda been. What a bummer, BUT let's look at this with a positive perspective.... I will not have to worry about those extra calories when I go to the gym!! :) Nope, still not feeling okay about the whole situation :) haha :) Anyway.. I just wanna give a quick shout out to my amazing family!! They are always thinking of me and are so supportive and loving even from across the world and it feels so good to still feel that consistent love every day!! Thank you all!!

Ok back to me... :)... So I decided to be a hermit for today because I don't remember hte last Saturday that I just relaxed. I tried to sleep in with no alarm, but I still woke up at 8:45 a.m. which I was okay with because I still felt well rested. I had some breakfast and started cleaning my apartment. It feels so good to have my apartment clean. I love being in my apartment after I've cleaned!! It looks and smells so good! Then I've just been relaxing. I wrote in my journal, read a book, watched a movie, did two loads of laudry including my bed sheets and relaxed. I love the weekends! Speaking of this weekends... my friends Jared Leavitt got married last weekend, Jarah Wagner and Brad Weston are getting married today, and Josh Watson gets married I think in the next week or two... wow... life is going to be a little different when I go home. No worries though, I still have my Kenz!! Well I better... six more months for her to NOT find a husband hehe :) I'm really happy for all my friends that are or have gotten hitched and wish I could have been there to support them! Well that's it for now... signing off for now!

I LOVE LIFE!!!

So this week hasn't been quite as eventful as China, but it has been a truly amazing week!! First off, school... school has been very busy lately. I am teaching a summer intensive program on top of my teaching schedule and it has kept me very busy. We also have had 2 new teachers come in this week and have 3 more coming at the end of the month. Hayli and I are the only foreign teachers who are staying.. so we will be the big dogs now :) I am excited for the challenge.
This past Thursday we took the kids to a swimming pool!! I was loving life. The weather was gorgeous, my kids were behaving great, and I got to act like a lil kid in the pool. My kids were so stinking cute. Camilla's swimsuit was the sexiest swimsuit I have ever seen a young girl wear and I had to laugh a little because I was so taken back by it when she took her clothes off. I have a picture on my camera, but I left my camera at PJ's today... .oops.. I know not surprising though :) I even got a little tan going on, which I never though would happen. I am more white now than I think I have ever been in August. The weather has been scolding hot lately though and I am really enjoying it... well as long as I have water or air conditioning :) My clothes have been sticking to me lately and I've had to shower every time I get back home or have a break in the middle of my day on the weekends :)
On Saturday morning I had the opportunity to go and listen to Elder Cook speak at the Korean singles conference. He spoke on marriage of course and said some very memorable and important things on that topic, but he also told a story and linked it to our lives and I want to share that with ya'll. His story was about a man who lived in the southern states. This man baked and sold pies... rabbit pie to be exact and the people loved them. A while later, the man went through an investigation because rumor had it that he was mixing horse meat in with his rabbit meat pies. After further investigation the rumor was confirmed as true. When the man finally fessed up to his secret mixture he explained calmly that he used half horse meat and half rabbit. Now the size of a horse is much bigger than a rabbit and when he said he used half horse meat and half rabbit, he wasn't lieing. He took the horse meat... cut it in half.. then took the rabbit meat and cut it in half and mixed the too together. So Elder Cook related this to our own lives by asking how much of our time to given to strengthening our testimonies, faith, temple attendance and other spiritual thing and how much of our time is spent on worldly affairs. Most peoples rabbit meat would be the spiritual things and the horse meat, the worldly thing. We were challenge to change that and it really was a boost and motivated me to re-evaluate how I spend my time. Am I spending it on the things that will count in the eternal perspective or am I more worried about the worldy things. I thought it was interesting and worth sharing. I'm excited to see and feel my spirit get stronger as I make this adjustment in my life and continue to do throughout my life.
After the meeting, I went with Young Ju and Young Moon to the base for PJ's bbq. Young Ju is a girl I met through PJ who had started to take discussions and has decided to get baptized next week. It has been such an amazing experience to be able to befriend her and share my testimony with her. My testimony has definately been strengthened from it and she has truly been a blessing in my life too.
Anyway, so we went and met up with PJ and his coworkers that he was having the bbq for. It was soooo much fun. We played mini golf and I won.. of course!!! :) Then we had hte bbq and threw a football and baseball around. Two Korean guys came up to me and asked me to teach them how to throw a football... :).. oh boy. So I did my best and they did get a little better. Not very athletic crew of Koreans. One guy was like 'You'll have to forgive me, I..... uh... I was gonna say I throw like a girl, but you throw much better than any girl I know' haha... I just said 'well that's because I have an awesome dad and bro that taught me how to really throw a football, so I don't look goofy' haha..... I was loving life and the weather couldn't have been any better!! We played a little football game, which was really a joke... not as competitive as I woulda liked it!! :) But that's ok.. I had a blast. Then we headed back to PJ's and we had a great discussion about marriage and dating :) Love those chats haha
Today was an amazing day!! I love Sundays. Something very exciting happened today.... PJ got called as our new bishop or they call it branch president here. I'm super pumped!! He's gonna do so great! Church was sooo awesome today. We had two talks on prayer that were both very inspiring and the other lessons were stellar too!! I got to attend a baptism of a friend I met and it was so fun to be part of that too! Life is so great!! This week will be another busy one, but I'm pumped. Tomorrow night, I have been invited to go to PJ and Lori's for dinner because Brother and Sister Goo are going to be there. Sister Goo spoke at the women's conference in 2007 and I have listened to her talk and am very excited to meet her and her husband!! Should be a great night!!

Beijing Adventure!!!

Lynz... you recognize this pic... hehe

So this past week, Hayli and I went to Beijing. We stayed in China for 5 days and 4 nights and we had an absolute blast!! We got up early Tuesday morning and headed to the bus stop. We had some shoe drama with Hayli forgetting her running shoes and it was quite the gong show morning. We had gotten on the airport bus and driven 5 mintues before she decided to hop off the bus, take a taxi back home, and try to catch the next airport bus, which we had no idea when it was supposed to come and I seriously thought I was going to be going to China by myself. It did give us quite a few laughs while waiting for our flight.

On the airport... heading to China

Lynz was trying to explain to me how I do a collage picture, but I wasn't listening too closely, so I have a few photos I'm gonna put on here and if you wanna see the rest (Dad) then you're gonna have to go on facebook and check them out.

The crew out for dinner.
Juong, Heidi, me, Hayli, April, Hana, and Catherine

So the first day we did the Forbidden City, Tianamen Square, Silk factory, Duck restaurant and Circus show. The Forbidden city and Tianamen Square were amazing... it was so neat to be there and recognize things from Lynz' pics when she was there!! The silk factory was fun too because I pretended like I really was gonna buy somet hings, so they were letting me lay on these silky sheets and it was soooo comfy. Lynz didn't enjoy the duck restaurant when she was here, but I actually didn't mind it. It wasn't even close to as good as Dad's pheasant meat, but it was good.

Can you see me!?!?!?

The circus show was UNREAL!!! I coulda watched it every night! The stunts they did were soooo cool. I was sad because they were real strict about taking pictures. I snuck my camera in, but got caught as I was just about to take a pic. They were amazing athletes and so gifted. There were 3 little girls, like I'd say they were 12 or 13 and the things they were doing were insane!!

Our hotel was ghetto, but not in too bad of shape. It was nice cuz we were right down town, so there was lots of stuff going on all the time. The food in China is GREASY!!!! The fry everything!! They fry salad, corn... everything. I stuck mostly to eating the fruit, but the food was actually really good. The only Chinese food I really recognized from home was the lemon chicken stuff.

This is my pineapple with rice and veggies inside... very interesting.

On day 2 we went to the Great Wall, jade factory, friendship store, Ming 13 Tombs, and of course, by my request, the Olympic Bird's nest. I loved the Great Wall. The weather was not real nice, it was really muggy and cloudy, but Hayli and I hiked up the stairs to the very top and were sweating and gross when we got down, but had a blast doing it. It was amazing thinking of how they built this with just their hands so long ago and how sturdy and intense it was. I also was able to walk through Granny Hill's and Lynz footprints they left on the hike too which was a very neat experience too!!

Gettin ready for our Great Wall hike

Look at those muscles infront of the Bird's Nest

The jade factory and friendship store were fun to look around in. I love playing the bargaining game, so they'd start at a ridiculously high price, like let's just say 900 and I'd start at 25. They'd be like "oh no you crazy, you never get real jade for that price" so I'd play around with them a bit more and come and go.... just before leaving the store, I had a bracelet taht started at 950 down to 35... I didn't buy it, but it was fun to win!! :)

We are amazing bargainers!!

The Ming 13 tombs was also very cool. We had a really great tour guide and she told us of hte history and we were able to wander around and look at all the cool looking building and statues.


Temple of Heaven

The next day we did the Summer Palace, pearl factory, Temple of Heaven, and.... the market!!! The summer palace was gorgeous. We took a dragon boat actross the lake and there wasn't as many people which was nice, cuz we could just relax and wander around a bit.

Hayli and I with our dragon boat

The pearl market, again was fun..... I did some more bargaining and, of course, won all the bargains I wanted to :) Yes dad, that's the stubborn, bull-headed side of me :)

I really enjoyed the Temple of Heaven too because there wasn't as many people too. I had 3 groups of young people come up and ask for a photo and for me to sign my name... I'm not sure if htey really thought I was a movie star, or if they just really have never seen a blonde chick before :) but I was able to oblige, it made me feel special haha.

The market.. oh the market... how I loved the market.... it was bargain central. Everyone wanted you. I started bargaining for this ugly shirt cuz the girl wouldn't leave me alone and finally she was like 'I don't like you, you're too smart" haha... I bought some uggs for $20 and a purse for $10... it was sooo fun!! I don't think the sale people liked me very much because my opening line was "Now you're not dealing with your average foreigner, dont' be playing games with me" I felt so tough haha.

These girls loved me... we had fun bargaining!!

The last couple days we relaxed. Went to a Hutong village and just walked around and acted like foreigners. I had such a blast and would love to go back with my family!!! Throughout the trip I kept thinking how amazing it'd be to go on a trip like that with my fam!! I miss them!!! We had such a fun tour group. The whole crew was made up of English teachers who teach in or around Seoul, so it was fun to make some new friendss. I'm excited for my next trip even though I have to wait till Christmas. Right now I'm leaning towards Thailand!!