mmmmmmm mangos

My wonderful husband went to the veggie market last night to grab me a few things for dinner and brought back some wonderful surprises! Mangos and delicious looking Strawberries!!! I hadn't really eaten many mango (real mangos) before coming to China and last spring I feel in love with them! I cant wait to make some mango smoothies and enjoy them! Sadly, it looks like I am going to be missing a good part of mango season when I head back to the Continental US in a few days....so sad.

On another note. I watched the movie Twilight with some friends last night. I was greatly disappointed as it did not do the book justice at all. However, I continued to read the book last night and this morning and still love it, even though the movie was so vague.

My suggestion: don't watch the movie- read the books!

Deck of You- Week 4...

Wouldn't you know it, just when I feel like I have ALL the time in the world my days get way too short. I hope to do more updates soon but it seems other plans are being made- just gotta go with the flow sometimes...especially when there is no schedule you can set.

Deck of You prompt for week 4- A symbol that you love
You know you have it, don't be ashamed of it! Why does it speak to you! When did you first encounter it? Tell us! Show us!

I will post my card soon- as soon as I do it- ha.

Yay for busy fun days that leave you not being able to keep your eyes open when you need to get things done.

Warm Weather = Happiness

I feel like my mood changes with the weather. As much as I try to be happy on a daily basis there is nothing like warm weather to lift my spirits. Friday morning started with a walk to the store with one of my good friends Jada and then a yummy tuna melt for me and tuna sandwich for her. We then proceed to chat as she went through my clothes. I love giving my clothes away, I am not sure why but it makes me happy. While going through the clothes this conversation happened many times:

Jada "you don't want/like this!!!??!"

Me "yes but I have so much back in America"

Jada "oh." As she picks up another piece of clothing and exclaims "you don't want/like this!??!"

She soon realized we were having the same conversation every two seconds and we both laughed. Ah, I'm going to miss that girl a whole lot.

I am currently involved in the Self Challenge by Self Magazine. Trying to get into better shape- you know its an on going process. This past week I have been hanging out on the stationary bike at the gym. I have been riding for about one hour. I bring along my Twilight Book (I'm on the third one in the series now) and the time just flies by! It amazes me!

We then came back from the gym and whipped up some yummy smoothies and fixed homemade pizza for dinner! I am getting a little braver in trying new things in my cooking and baking now. This time I added some ground flax seed and wheat germ to the pizza dough. It was still delicious AND healthy. Curtis and I love cooking together. We do it whenever we can. It gives us time to do something together, chat and just relax. Plus we both love food. I used a different kind of yeast then normal and for some reason it didn't rise. I'll have to figure that out. Spicy BBQ Chicken Pizza
Fresh Veggie Pizza

We enjoyed our veggie and spicy BBQ chicken pizzas while watching the movie Fireproof. It was an interesting movie. The acting was not very good but it had some good messages in it. I'm sure it got some differing reactions by the public as well.

Saturday I enjoyed a sunny day in Beijing with Rena. We ate a delicious meal at Outback Steakhouse, tracked down a tanning salon and stocked up at Jenny Lous (the western grocery store). On the way home we met some students who were carrying along a little turtle in a plastic bag. They graciously let him out to run on the silver platter for a good portion of the trip. We tried to have a conversation but my Chinese is horrible and their English was "poor" (as they say). We discovered they went to the same school we teach at and they live at the airport. However I'm sure the second part was some sort of a mistake - but ya never know!

The two students. The one on the right is trying to think of the English he knows...

Deck of You- Week 3!

Well we are onto our third week! I hope you are checking out the awesome cards others are doing and feel free to jump in at any time. There is no need to start at the beginning!

This weeks prompt is - I AM...
Make an "I am" statement. Use it in any sort of a way, long sentence short sentence whatever...I am one of a kind. I am living bright (trying to at least). This past month has been a month of revelations. I have had more ideas and felt more alive then I have in a while and I love it! I feel like I am in my skin again...I want to be me, and live that to the fullest without the worry of what others think. I will keep trying....

I tried to put the "one of a kind" over the word average but it didn't turn out as obvious as I had hoped. Can't wait to see yours!!

One of those days....

This past week my dad started a group to do a Bible study for Lent together over the Internet. I have really enjoyed doing it. It consists of a short Bible reading, prayer and reflection time everyday. Its been really challenging me a lot. Just a simple little verse and prayer has opened my eyes and heart up to the little changes I can make in my life. One that really stuck out to me was "In your anger, do not sin. Do not give the Devil a foothold. Get rid of bitterness"- Ephesians 26,27 & 31. Maybe its because I am an emotional girl but I get upset and anger over the silliest things and it only lasts for a brief second. That should tell me it not worth getting upset over. But I do. I am trying to learn how to catch myself BEFORE I say something I later regret that would hurt the other person. I have made some mistakes lately and they have really eaten away at my heart and I feel horrible, even though I have asked for forgiveness. Its a daily struggle I have, among others.

But I think I have the best squishy face....what do you think?