Vonatar

We saw avatar a while ago, and it was great! There was just one thing that bothered me from the time Jake Sully went into avatar mode, until the end of the movie. The Vonage logo on his face was very distracting. Sorry if I ruined anything, but Callie laughed when I showed her. -Mark

We Are Moving To A Little Place Called......

中山!!

Well, it's about time we made it official, and by official i mean announce it on our blog. Mark and I are moving to China for 4 months to teach English, and have a little adventure!!!

We just got our official assignment today. Zhongshan, China.

Here is a little information about our city:

• it is a sister city to Honolulu, Hawaii
• there is/will be a lamp museum, in the shape of a lamp
• there are several hot spring resorts
• has the largest bronze statue in the world
• a pedestrian mall (of course!)
  
• the above notable Fufeng Pagoda which is 7 stories and was built in 1608
• the province has 500 miles of coastline

it is located in the Guangdong province, which is SouthEast China, near Hong Kong.

Our current departure date is August 23rd, although we may opt to go a little earlier to have some time to ourselves before everything starts.



Can't wait!

Birthday Bash!

Yesterday was my golden birthday! and it was full of loveliness!

mark and i ready to have a great birthday day

We had lunch at yummy Carrabba's. I LOVED the fried zucchini and my delicious pina colada smoothie!

Then later Mark and I went to see Alice in Wonderland. I absolutely loved it! I think all Tim Burton movies are so fun to watch.

this is also when the surprises started coming. I made Mark take me early to the movie because i needed to have good seats for my birthday. while we were waiting, our friends/neighbors walked in. i was so excited! "what are the chances?!!" i think i said. Yeah, mark invited them without telling me. little sneaker. THEN later my friend Kat showed up! i was so thrilled! i had invited her earlier but she had said she had to work. turns out she was in cahoots with Mark. Those little sneakers!

Then after the movie we invited them to come over for the cake mark had made for me. when i walked in the door i discovered a full fledged surprise party! complete with wonderful decorations! (thanks wendy!)

All of us! This is the only picture i have with Wendy and Syd :(

Mark's mom and dad!

Camille and Briant!

Sherry and John!

I know i look creepy in this picture, but the cake looks so good! mark made me this wonderful ice cream cake all by himself! Wendy helped with the frosting, my favorite color!

I was very lucky this year! Wendy and Melinda got me all the fixins for a fantastic pedicure. complete with pedegg, not shown here.

Mark got me a variety of bathroom goodness (i'm sensing a theme here....)

a fun shower cap to replace my old nasty one. he also got me some princess body wash and some yummy Reese's.

and John and Sherry gave me these awesome earrings all the way from China. (well, i guess everything i got today probably came from China... but these are more authentic!)

After everyone left Mark and i got a little camara happy.

he was so proud of himself for throwing such a successful surprise filled birthday for me

we tried to see how many hats we could put on Mark.

Thanks for such a fun day sweet!

Callie, There's Something I Have to Tell You

You're a redneck.

Love, Mark.

Insanity

a funny thing happened today. Mark and i were driving in the car talking about things that we had done that day. I told Mark about work, some of the funny calls that i had, and then we ran out of stuff. then Mark said, "OH!! I got sucked into an infomercial today!" he said "it was a workout one." I immediately got real excited and demanded to know the name of it. "Insanity" he replied. "I watched it too!!!!" i said.

I had really watched the entire infomercial last week. for about 20 minutes. I really thought it was cool and that it would be an awesome program.

anyway, we had a good laugh that we were both so hook on INSANITY.

for a clip of it, go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLK28BHJDd8

Morning Glory

I am not, i repeat, NOT a morning person. let me rephrase that, i love the mornings! i love to get things done and feel like i have accomplished something before the afternoon comes. however, to take that first step out of bed is NOT my thing.

Once i am up and going i am fine and dandy, but if you want me to get up and going, you will have to move heaven and earth. Just ask Mark. i think i may have brought him to tears the other day with all the mean things i said when he was trying to get me out of bed. (sorry honey! I'm not myself i promise!) This is where i would like to discuss the real me, and the morning (in bed) me. As probably everyone who reads this knows, i am a fairly nice person, or at least i like to think so. but the bed me will do, or say, anything to stay in bed; even for just 1 more snooze. I am the master of convincing myself that i have all the time in the world to get ready and be to work on time, even though i only have 30 minutes.

The real me is very practical. she makes plans, has goals, and has a whole list of things she would LOVE to wake up early for. but when the time comes for me to get out of bed and do all those things, the bed me takes over. its a horrible thing.

I have always had this problem. i just love to sleep and lay in my nice comfy bed.

I Love This Time of Year

For just this very reason

In fact, Mark just called me as i was writing this post saying that he just had a Reese's egg and we need to stock up. I couldn't agree more babe!