My Little Bro

My Little Brother is officially a Marine now. Congratulations Zacky! We're so proud of you!

English??

As many of you know, i have graduated. People keep asking me what i am doing now that i'm done with school and my response is "I'm taking more classes." I just can't seem to be able to let go! So, i am taking classes at SLCC (salt lake community college for my non-UTard family). I have joined the ASL fast track program to get my interpreting skills up to par... and I LOVE it! The only downside to this, is that i have to drive to Salt Lake twice a week, which for me is quite a bit of driving considering i used to take the bus everywhere.

But, Mark and I have found a way to turn my boring drive time into my productive time! I am learning Mandarin! We got a CD set from the library and I'm getting pretty good if i do say so myself!I can already say "I am an American," "I speak English," "I speak a little Mandarin," "Do you speak English?," "Excuse me, can i ask?," I know how to make a phrase a question, say two different types of "yes" and "no," and all kinds of variations and mix-and-match's of all those! Considering I've only done it for about a day and a half i'm feeling pretty good. So good in fact that I had my first dream in Mandarin! It was SOO weird. In my dream i kept trying to talk to Chinese people saying all of my new phrases, but towards the end i just kept running around shouting English?!!! English?!!! I felt like i was stuck saying just my few phrases and i was desperate to find someone who I could really talk to! I thought it was pretty funny!

Dinner Catastrophe

So yesterday Mark and I were in a hurry! We were doing laundry, had to go to mutual, trying to arrange for our carpets to be cleaned (we have lived in our apartment for almost 2 years!!!),and trying to set up interviews for church. And in the middle of all of that, we had to have dinner. We decided on sloppy joes. because honestly, who doesn't love slopppppy joes? (and not to mention they are fast.) So i set out to make dinner while Mark was making calls. I finished cooking the meat and both Mark and I went to get the laundry (have i mentioned how much i HATE not having my own washer and dryer?? HATE HATE HATE!!!!).

When we were walking back into the apartment i was so excited to walk in the door and smell glorious sloppy joe meat! I walked in and was immediately very confused. I didn't smell sloppy joes at all! it was very very different. So i walked over to my meat and realized what i had done. I made taco meat. I dont know how that happened! so after some serious laughing and me being a bit heart broken and disappointed ( i believe my exact words were "i don't want no stinkin' tacos!") we had nachos instead!

And, i earned the award for the dorkiest cook of all time. Apparently i should not be allowed in the kitchen while under pressure.

Thief

Dear Bike Thief,

I would like to tell you that i am very disappointed in the choices you have made recently. First of all, stealing is bad; very bad. Secondly, you chose the wrong bike. Mark is a very nice boy who loves his bike and didn't deserve to get it stolen. When you took it, it made him very sad, distressed, shocked, and angry.

Next, you don't have very good taste. Although Mark's bike was very nice, it certainly wasn't the best bike there. After all, mine is a better brand, newer, and was parked right next to his. And, i would not have minded nearly as much if you had taken mine; I rarely ride it whereas Mark rides his everyday.

Also, it was very rude of you to just snip off his lock and toss it aside. We paid a good $15 for that lock and would much appreciate it if you would treat it with a little more respect. And i would like to tell you that you are not nearly as cool as you think you are. I know you probably thought you were all motcho taking it in broad daylight, but it just shows me that this is probably not your first time, and you have a lot of problems in your life.

So, for all of these reasons i feel very sorry for you and your pitiful thieving existence. I hope you are either thoroughly enjoying your "new" bike or else you got a good amount of money and used it for something worthwhile. For now i am just going to assume that you need it more than us.

Now if you will excuse me, I'm going bike shopping! (and buying a much better lock)

with utter disgust,

Callie

New Addition to the Family!

Not that kind of addition you crazy people! This kind!!

We had a very sad week last week in which our old trusty computer died. Literally. Mark was working on it, and it just shut down and wouldn't turn back on. But from every tragedy comes something new!

In this case it is the Dell Studio 17. Originally i wanted a Mac, but after comparing, this was definitely the smarter decision i think. for half the price we got double the RAM and triple the hard drive. Not to mention double the screen size. It's so big the keyboard has a number pad! this one also has some cool features such as a built in web cam (mom you really need to get yours working!) and a back lit keyboard, and a free upgrade to Windows 7.

We ordered it online and can't wait for our new little addition to come home to us in 5-8 days!

P.S.

Because i will be graduating soon i have been thinking about what i want for my graduation gift. Originally i said a MacBook, but because we saved so much money on our new Dell i may be able to get this for graduation in addition to the laptop!

A movie projector!! Get ready for some fantastic movie nights!!
one more semester and it may be mine!

Summer Update

So i found some pictures that Wendy sent us from a while ago, so i thought i would update the world (or the 5 people who read my blog) about the goings on of my summer. Here we go!

I went to summer school!
I finished summer school!
I finished summer school with a 4.0!

I conquered my intense fear for about 5 seconds while i took this picture!

We got some Jamba 2 for 1 coupons and have been taking advantage. who knew Jamba tastes even better frozen?!

Went for walks down the Provo River walkway

we also went on a new hike and i dont have any pics with me now, plus i look AWFUL in them. trust me, you dont want to see me tired, sweaty, and with absolutely zero makeup on. Plus i was terrified the whole time becasue we ran into two snakes! OK, OK, they were baby gardeners, but they are still snakes. that wiggle. and slither. on the ground. by my feet. and up my leg. and in my hair. You get the picture.

Now onto my daily routine:

I go to work.
I come home.
I eat a yogurt parfait.
I watch this:Specifically this:

Then this:

Then this:

but don't get the wrong idea here. I really dont just sit on my butt all day. I am doing things while i watch/listen to these shows. Here is a list of things i do while i indulge in these shows:

plan Sunday lessons
eat lunch
clean my apartment
make lists like this

laundry

plan dinner
grocery shop (obviously not a do-and-watch kind of thing)
make dinner
read
sleep

Also, i started a new thing last week that worked pretty well. I go to the gym during Ellen and run while i watch. That my friends is called multi-tasking!

I figured out how to take cereal with me to work

Yes, that is a icing thing for cake decorating.

And the best part!!! I get to hang out with this kid!

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

The MOST AMAZING thing happened to me today. I was bored at work as usual, so i checked my email. And there it was. Just a little email that completely made my day. I WON a contest! Yesterday and the day before i entered a contest on ABC4.com that Ellen was doing and I WON!!! and what did i win you might ask??? Oh just 2 little tickets. To see the new Harry Potter movie. On JULY 13!!! two days before it officially comes out!!

I didn't even know what to do. I just started jumping up and down back here in my little office. I was completely stunned!!! I WON!!!! I don't even have to wait up all night for a midnight showing! I immediately started calling everyone that would appreciate this news. But nobody answered, so I just had to blog about it!

I am beside myself!

Mark get ready for your wife to be a giddy little girl for the next couple days. And get ready for the best date you've ever had!

Treasure Hunt

So when i came home from work today i found this on the table:

So i read it, and immediately think of the fake flowers we have in our bathroom. (yes i know this is what you would say "tacky" but trust me, it's better than nothing) So i look in there, thinking that maybe Mark switched them out for some new ones or something, but they're the same and everything looks just like i left it. So i think, maybe i got it wrong and i should look in other places. i re-read it and think "certain location" this can only mean one thing to Mark: the refrigerator. But yet again, nothing. So i continue looking everywhere. Before long i give up and just call Mark to tell him i can't figure out where he put my prize. He just laughs at me and says "I tried to make it hard." then he says "which one are you on?" so then i get it, there are more instruction cards. So i go back to the fake flowers and find this hidden in them:

I quickly hang up with Mark because i want to figure it out on my own. So i read it. Nothing. Trident?? we don't have any gum. and since when does Mark like Trident? Obviously the underlined letters have something to do with it. LITR. Did he mean litter?? am i supposed to look in the trash? So i call Mark back to tell him i can't figure out this one either. Apparently only the L and T are underlined. So??? still nothing. Then Mark says "what do we refer to as LT?" Oh i get it "Learning Technics" (a program we are doing) So i hang up with Mark and run over to the basket we keep all the LT things in (in my defence, Mark has refered to Learning Technics as LT maybe 2 or 3 times in our lives) So i look and find this:

What the ????? So this time i don't even try. I just call Mark again. What the flip does this mean?? He asked me to read it to him so i said "curve arrow three forward arrow three forward slide I right bend and pull." Exactly, no sense whatsoever. So then he explains, curve arrow means turn around, three forward means take three steps forward, arrow means turn left, another three steps, slide I right means slide one step to the right, then bend over and pull. By following these instructions it took me to the desk (why he couldn't have said "go to the desk" I'm not certain)where i bent over (not really necessary, but amusing to watch i am sure) and pulled the drawer open and found these:

Zebra tissues. I love everything zebra (as long as its cute zebra and not ugly zebra). Isnt he so sweet? confusing, but sweet!

It's Official

I've been thinking about signing up to do Mary Kay for a while now, and I finally decided to do it! So, it's official. I got my "starter kit" yesterday equipped with everything i need to do parties. I went to my first meeting last night, and must confess, I'm scared. I'm not really a "salesman" and WILL NOT be pushy. I couldn't live with myself.

So, that being said, I'm placing my first order tomorrow so if you would like something please let me know nowish. If you think you might want something, but don't know what, give me a call and I'll TRY to help you. Remember I'm just starting and don't know everything yet. But i have tried most everything, so we'll see what i can do.

So, everyone take a look at my website:

marykay.com/calliev

Return to Sender

So some of you may remember this post. We made those cookies specifically for Mark's cousin Briant who was doing summer sales in California at the time. We sent a bunch of the cookies with some other goodies. here is the stamp of when we sent them.

Sadly, Briant never did receive the package. We assumed it was lost in the mail. Until yesterday that is, when we got a package slip in our mailbox. Mark and I were both really excited because we weren't expecting anything. So, Mark picked up the package and, you guessed it. We FINALLY got it back in the mail. Yep, 11 months later, we got it.

So we invited Briant over to let him open his package, almost a year later.

Here he is looking at his stash. We sent him the cookies, Lego fruit snacks, Parmesan goldfish, parachute army men, and a nice copy of a now very outdated Ensign.


To say the least, the cookies were now a bit scary. They weren't really moldy per say, but there was some definite fuzz in the containers.

Here is Briant being very brave in getting this cookie this close to his mouth.


All in all, it was pretty hilarious. Have any of you ever gotten a package back after this long??

Tragedy

So for some strange reason our apartment complex has decided to change internet providers. Before, we paid like $50 for 6 months or something like that. I know, a great deal. And on top of that the speed was pretty good too. But, now they have elected to switch to something else that costs $30 per MONTH and is supposedly much faster.

We both thought it was fast enough and are not interested in paying so much money for the internet. We told our apartment people this, but they didnt listen to us. So the end of the story is that we no longer have Internet access from our apartment. I am afraid that as a result of this my blogging is going to take a serious hit. I know, that is the tragedy part. But, i'm hoping that this is really a blessing in disguise. Now i think both Mark and I will be much more productive without the distraction of constantly checking emails and blogs. Mark is pretty bummed because this means that he will have much less time to find killer deals, but now we wont be tempted to buy things we dont really need. But, we can still access it for free at the library, school, and work so all is not lost.

Oh The Crazies I See

Long time blog reader, first time poster. I really just want to express my concerns about three individuals I have encountered in public over the past two days. Who raised these kids?!

Case #1
I knew I was bound to see something really exciting sooner or later riding public transportation. There I was keeping to myself thinking about anything but Chemistry/Biology, when I was rudely interrupted by a very angry couple. I am not too sure what the deal was, but some how the guy ended up in the seat right in front of me. Because his "girl" would not talk to him, he just sat sad as could be by his lonesome. To cope with he recent rejection he thought it might be a good time to roll up his bag of weeds. What a nut.

Case #2 & 3
We needed to pick up a few things from the store this evening, and this is where it all went south. I noticed this really tall woman with a cast on her leg and frizzy red hair right when we walked into the store. She was walking just ahead of us, and stopped by the small Jelly Belly dispenser on the end of an aisle. She then proceeded to open the lid, take a piece, and engulf it! I thought that was illegal. . .Just wait, it gets worse. I let that one slide, but then I saw her later on with a bag filled with the glorious beans. She was just snacking away as she was checking out the magazines, BEFORE she checked out! As many of you may know, candy is purchased by the pound when self scooped. Interesting how she will not be charged for the pound in her tummy.

Then this girl who was probably on her way to a chess club meeting (NERD) cut in front of us as we were waiting in line for the self-checkout. She realized that we were possibly waiting for the next available lane as she was and said "you were not waiting in line were you?" . Who is this girl?! Then she got behind us. . .get a load of this. . .She then ran to the next available self-checkout after she just confirmed we were next!

Callie was there for #2 and #3 and I needed to share my experiences with others. I hope you kind of liked it.

Can You Say YUMMY??

So as you have probably deduced, Smith's was having a sale on Ben and Jerry's. Mark and I went thinking we would get two or three, nope, we got 14! We really love our ice cream! In case you want to know, they were on sale for $1.80 each. (As opposed to the normal $4.something each) The sale was only happening for a few hours today, so we jumped on it.

In our defense, one of them is for Wendy.

Weekend Events

So Mark and I spent this weekend up at his parents house. Friday night for some reason Mark really wanted to go to this restaurant in Sandy called "The Philadelphian." Lets just say it was the dirtiest most disgusting place EVER. But Mark kept assuring me that the sandwiches were worth it. So I ordered a turkey sandwich, and Mark ordered a cheese steak sandwich. So, we got the food after about a half an hour in terror at being in such a filthy place and went to his parents house. We sat down, opened up our sandwiches to find that my turkey sandwich was just that. White bread with about a pound of turkey. that's it. no mayo, mustard, lettuce. Nothing. Then Mark opens his sandwich to discover that they forgot the cheese on his cheese steak. minor detail. So it was a pretty big disappointment.

But despite dinner, we still had a fun night and just hung out and watched the chassic "Top Gun". I had never really realized how extremely cheesy that movie is (unlike Mark's sandwich. Ha Ha i just crack myself up!)

Anyway, Mark's parents are out of town so we thought this would be a great time to surprise his Mom for her birthday in a couple weeks. She has wanted some things done at her house, so we took care of it this weekend. The first thing was that she wanted this closet painted. (Her dream has always been to open her closet and all of white her dishes will just "pop" out. (Silly? maybe. Cute? yes.)

So here are some "before" pictures

Second. She wanted the wall paper taken down from her laundry room

So now for the work pictures

Mark's brother Steven

Mark painting the closet

Cute Wendy in the sink

Steven and boys:

no comment. (in my defense, I have been sick all week)

Pizza break!

The mayhem

All done! We left a birthday message with our hand prints on the newly wallpaper-less wall

Overall, it was a lot of work but a lot of fun!

New Camera!

So the other day Mark went to a pre-dental seminar at BYU, and they were giving prizes away. And, surprise of all surprises Mark won a new ipod nano! He was pretty excited about it. But, we decided we really didn't need it because I already have one, and Mark's phone doubles as an MP3 player, so we traded it with his sister Wendy for this:

So we gave Wendy the ipod and my old little digital camera, and she gave us her big one that she never uses. We are so excited about it. We have been wanting to get one for a while now, but in case none of you guys know, we are both poor poor college students.

So, you can all look forward to seeing some great pictures we take with our awesome new camera! thanks for the trade Wendy!

The Callie 1

So on our day off, Mark decided to play with his legos that my mom sent him for Christmas. This is the result. Sorry we had to do it in clips. My little camera won't do longer ones.

So i hope you enjoyed our first lego production! And now for your viewing pleasure . . . bloopers!!

I just thought that Mark looked too cute not to share it

New Skiis

So a while ago Mark bought me my very own skiis!!! As soon as he discovered that I was actually enjoying myself skiing he just couldn't resist. We got a screaming deal on them. Skiis, boots, and poles for $50.00!!! And everything is in GREAT condition. So here are some pictures of me sporting my new goods.

And of course it wouldn't be complete without adding "the suit"

So that's it! Thank you craigslist for getting us in touch with people who have no idea what their stuff is worth!!!




P.S. I have no idea if that is how you spell skiis. I kept going back and forth between skis. They both look weird. Stupid word.

Oreo Cookies

So a while ago Mark and I made some homemade Oreo
cookies, here are some pics, sorry neither of
us ended up in any of them, so to make up for it i
added one of Mark in at the end.

We set up a little "cookie station" on the coffee table so we
could watch a movie while we assembled them

The Wall

So we had this great idea for a wall in our bedroom. We went and got pictures of all the temples that we had been to. (just been to, not been into... we would only have 3 if we did the other way)

So we got the pictures and then bought some foam board and put them together. Then we stuck them on the wall with some heavy duty double sided sticky things.

Anyway... by the second day, they ended up like this....

Any ideas??