Pack Your Bags Cricke-We're Movin' Out!

If someone would have asked me the fall of my Senior year in high school, if my five year plan included getting married, having a baby, and moving to China I probably would have laughed and said "that's not quite what I had in mind". In fact, my five year plan could not be more opposite than the way my life has turned out. I was NOT going to get married at age 19. I was going to go to hair school or nanny on the east coast. I was going to move far away and be a mega big hair dresser in NYC, and then I was going to serve a mission. I wasn't going to get married until atleast 23, when I got back from said mission. Well, if you know me (and you should if you're reading this, since my blog is PRIVATE), you know that my life didn't turn out quite the way that I planned it-it turned out better!

I got married 3 months after I turned 19 to the most handsome man ever, managed an apartment complex, finally made it to hair school, had a a gorgeous baby girl and never left my hometown (much to my Mother's delight!), until now. In January 2011, we will be moving to Beijing, China!!!
Some of you may be thinking "why China?". Well, I'll tell you-Ronnie went on a Mandarin speaking mission to Montreal, Canada and decided that he wanted to work with the Chinese for the rest of his life, so the only logical career choice was International Business. He's two semesters away from completing his Bachelors in Communication (including this semester) and then he will move on to SUU to get his Masters in International Business.

Well, along the way, he's been working with the international "branch" of the college that just brought 20 Chinese students to DSC and received an offer from an International Student Agency in China last Thursday to do an internship, in China! This was seriously, the moment he's been waiting for since he returned from his mission and we could not be more excited!

So we'll be moving in with my parents October 1st, so that we can start saving some mula (THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!) and then we will be moving to a little one room apartment in Beijing, China on January 5th, 2011! AH! The internship will provide room and board, but we will not be getting paid, unless Ronnie is offered a job of some sort. Though we are ecstatic about this opportunity, I am a little....apprehensive...for one-I don't speak Chinese. For another, they use human...stuff...to fertilize their produce and we'll have to boil/purify any water that we want to use. And then...there are these

Yes, that is a bathroom! They really only have these at really ancient places, like the great wall. I'm told they have more western toilets at more modern places. Anywho, I won't end on the negative (or slightly amusing). This will be a grand adventure! We'll get to see the Great Wall, The Forbidden City, hopefully some Tera Cota Warriors, get cheap nock offs of really expensive things and make friends that I'm sure we'll have for a lifetime and beyond! In the words of Mushu from my favorite movie Mulan (ironic, no?) "Pack your bags Cricke! We're movin' out!"