~Making spirits bright~

~Holiday Cheer~

I feel like I just blogged but so many things have happened! Adam and I finished up our classes with plays. They were a lot of fun and our students did great. Adam made me, Vera, and May a shrimp dinner for Christmas Eve and it was amazing! I didn't have to help because he had to rip the heads off, take the shells off and rip the vein out of each one and he knew I pry wouldn't have been able to taste the goodness if I helped. We had a Christmas party with one of my classes on Christmas Eve and had so much fun. Our students had a New Years party with their classes and we got to be the only teachers that were invited. Adam and I felt very cool! We are around their ages so I am more like their sister and friend to them, actually some of them thought we were only 18 or 20!haha A Japanese class we have never met wanted us to come sing for them and it was funny. Adam has a good voice, me on the other hand can not sing! We both had colds and it was a sad version of Rudolph the Red nose reindeer! We had to stay for another 5 minutes while they all got out their phones and snapped photos. We went to Qingdao for our last Sunday with the Branch. It was very sad but we had a great afternoon visiting with all the BYU teachers. We are so happy that we will be with a few of them in Hainan, see them all in Hong Kong and end our trip with Victoria and Nona. I am so thankful for their love and support. China would not have been as wonderful without being able to attend church Sundays and to have their friendship. They have been our family away from family! We are now sadly cleaning and packing our apartment before we head off to travel around. I am happy that our Thailand trip is back on because it is HOT there!! Adam and I have loved being in China. We have been so lucky to enjoy being able to spend every waking moment together! We will miss it but I know that we will end up back here someday!

~First Wedding Anniversary~

Metro Cafe

Shopping shopping shopping!

And more shopping!

Rockin our new jeans!

TGIFridays!!

The Holiday Inn is the best!

Another Lady Gaga and Christina Aquilera look alike???

It was sad to leave Beijing!

~Happy one year wedding anniversary~

We can't believe that it has been a year since we knelt across the alter and were sealed for all time and eternity but it has! We are so happy and lucky in love! I feel like the luckiest girl to have married Adam. We had to teach on our anniversary but Adam made it special and I woke up to breakfast from McDonalds! It was a treat and then Adam and I exchanged gifts! I got him 2 shirts which of course he bargained for. He got me this fabulous white fur cropped jacket and some awesome purple and gray striped fleece thermals. He is the sweetest! Then we went out to a "western" style resturanut and had some good food. Then we went to Beijing for the weekend. Adam planned everything so I didn't have to worry about anything other than what I was going to pack! We took the fast train which was awesome and really nice(especially compared to the cockroach infested trains we usually ride!). We got off the train and Adam surprised me with a bouquet of lillies that our driver was holding. We stayed at the Holiday Inn, which was really nice and they made us feel extremely special. We stayed in an Executive room so we got all the benefits of that! The hotel staff knew our names everywhere we went and always wished a happy wedding anniversary. We recieved gifts almost every time we saw them. Adam did such a great job of planning everything and making me feel loved and special. We went out the first night to an Italian restaurant that was fantastic. You had to have reservations and the food was divine. It was the perfect intimate setting and romantic dinner. The next day we went to the Pearl market! It is always an experience there, but we had so much fun and came home with too many things! That night we went out to TGIFridays which of course was amazing! When we walked into the hotel after dinner they asked us to go to the Salt and Pepper restaurant inside the hotel. They had set up a table in the corner for us with candles and decorations and said, we figured that since you probably didn't get to really celebrate your wedding anniversary in Weifang you would like this. We loved it! They served us some cake and gave Adam a Chinese cut out and gave me 3 dozen roses. The next day we went shopping again and had to buy another suitcase to take it all back to Weifang! Who knows how we will get it back to the states! Adam planned massages but we had to skip that because we spent too long bargaining! We ate at Sizzler and watched the Chinese acrobatic show that night! It was amazing! Adams and I mouths were hanging open the whole time! We could not believe some of the things that they did! Sunday we checked out and the hotel gave us another gift for staying at their hotel. We went to church and braved the bitter cold wind and then got back on the train to come home to snow in Weifang! It was everything a wedding anniversary should be. Adam is so wonderful! We love being married and are so lucky to have eachother. He is my everything! Words can't express my love for him.

Fall 2008 ~Tailor made~ Look Book

Delicious Food!

The outside of our campus is filled with food vendors
This is one we usually go to! Each wrap with a

choice of a few vegetables and lamb meat is about $.25!

This is how we get to our most favorite restuarant!

You might be able to see a ball of white fur! It's a dog that is always on the roof!
Vera, Me, and May
We love this soup place!
You put all the vegetables or tofu in a tin can that you want
and then they boil it with some noodles and you get some
delicious soup! Yummy! Of course it has MSG so you know it is going to be good!
The best part is each bowl is about $.70!!!
We eat here atleast twice a week! Adam and I are going to miss this soup place!
But we are going to miss May and Vera so much more! I wish I could
put them in my suitcase and take them home with us!

The poultry is always fresh here in China!

Adam playing Santa! We are always together and so he
has to sneak away when May and Vera go out with us so that he can get me stuff!
Because my chinese is so great he gets to bargain for his gifts!
I wonder what that is under his sweater? Maybe this fur coat I have been begging for!??

~Qingdao~

Cool Market street that went on forever and sold almost everything!

My dream car!

I'm not sure what this guy was trying to do to the poor cat, but the cat clawed it's way out pretty fast! It was not getting eaten that day! haha jk

Catholic church and Christian church

~Sophia, Nona, Victoria, Me, and Adam~

Victoria, Nona, and Sophia took us around Qingdao! We had so much fun and it was a beautiful day. We walked around the "old" part of Qingdao which has a lot of the European architecture. We went to a park where there were a ton of brides getting pictures done. When the couples get married in China they don't wear wedding dresses. They rent the dresses and get their pictures done. It is funny to see them pull up their dresses and see jeans and tennis shoes. Adam and I love teaching in China. We have had so much fun and we love our students and the branch. We only have one more month of teaching before we start to travel around China and Thailand. We are thankful to be here and are truly blessed to know the members of branch. The members in Qingdao and our students have touched our lives in so many ways. We are so grateful to be here.

~Faspion~

~ Mickey Mouse~
Chinese Faspion!
Triumph for the journeyer, but at the cost of seperating the bonk DETWEEN left and right. For a brief time, there was no distinction between the two; they were one.


~Victoria~Nona~

Greatest Visiting Teachers!

Portable food! Take it anywhere you want!

MMMMM!

We found the imported food aisle! I was sooooooooo happy!

~TV Drama~

~We have been talking about politics in our classes and it has been interesting to hear what my students say about the elections. Most wanted Obama to win. Most didn't even know who McCain was. haha They wanted Obama to win because he is young, good looking, and has new ideas. So Adam and I have been teaching about making educated decisions. And we also talked a little about gay marriage. Fortunately for them it was an alien subject and they could not believe that a man and a man or a woman and a woman would actually want to kiss and get married! They thought I was joking that gay marriage was legal in a few states.

~I hope that Twilight is everything that we all want it to be! I am so jealous that all my sisters get to see it without me in only a few weeks! I want to hear all about it but at the same time I don't. I don't want to have any expectations. Things always seem to be so much better that way!

~ Monday nights during the summer were spent in a little t.v. room in our apartment club house watching the Bachelorette with Deanna Pappus. Most of us were disapointed when Deanna chose Jesse over Jason..................SERIOUSLY. Well the inevitable has happened and Jesse and Deanna have broken up. Really most of us probably aren't surprised. Thank goodness we have the internet here! More great news! Erica Hahns character has been CUT from Greys Anatomy! I love Greys and was sad and disgusted that they brought Callie and Erica together..........ugh just to play up Callie Torres amazing acting skills. But they are no more! YAY!