moving day/weekend

          Not going to lie I am feeling quite overwhelmed.  Last Wednesday Moe and I decided that we were going to move out of our apartment in hopes of saving money.  Although we are not out of our lease until August 31st, we are moving out now and hoping someone will save us.  If someone else moves we will get out of our lease and get the rent we already paid prorated back to us!! Anyhow, that was Wednesday. Thursday and Friday Moe and I both worked all day.  Yesterday I was at my grandparents house slaving away helping them clean out their 50 year old basement....it was a LONG day. But it was fun to share memories with them and spend time with them.  Thankfully hubby was able to get some things packed up in boxes yesterday.  Today those boxes will be moved. Hopefully our furniture will be moved today as well.  But I WONT BE HERE :( My aunt and uncle from out of state are in town for the weekend so I am going to see them. I am very excited to spend time with them dont get me wrong, but I have so many other things I need to do too.  I have not packed a single thing. I have no idea where things are going or what we need to be doing.
          So did you catch that, Thursday - work, Friday - work, Saturday - physical work at Grammas, Sunday - family time, Monday - moving! ugh.  Way too busy. Not to mention the bazillion other things we have to do to get ready for everything. ugh.
          I must remember though how blessed we are.  We are very blessed to have such wonderful parents.  My parents are going to help us clean the apartment tomorrow.  Moe's parents are helping move things out and will be letting us stay with them until we leave.  It is great.

          But for now I am tired, exhausted, and overwhelmed.

Yes, I will press on.  Yes, I will be fine.  and Yes today will be a good day.  But I needed to vent for a moment so here I am.  UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH! that is how I feel :)

Do you ever have days like this where you have millions of things to do but just want to sit and not do anything!?!?

BBQ Bacon Pork Chops

          Last week I bought pork chops that were on sale.  I was very excited.  But of course after bringing them home from the grocery, Moe told me that he didnt like pork chops! So making them was put on hold for awhile, but tonight seemed like the perfect time.  In order to get hubby on board I began looking for recipes.  I found Bacon Pork Chops with a BBQ Glaze from allrecipes.com.  It sounded amazing.  But I did not have all of the ingredients listed and was unsure of how to do some things.  So I adjusted the recipe just slightly.  Here is what we did.

          We used 4 thinly sliced pork chops, 5 pieces bacon (an extra for good measure), 1/2 cup lager beer (we used Yuengling, Moe's beer of choice recently), and 4 tablespoons BBQ sauce (of course the only Sweet Baby Rays!).  Then for the process:  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Pre-cook bacon slices in skillet for 45-60 seconds per side.  Remove from skillet and place on a plate.  Place pork chops in the same skillet and brown each side of chop (about a minute per side).  Place pork chops in a 9x12 oven safe pan lined with foil for easy clean up.  Place a few drops of BBQ sauce on pork chops to hold bacon.  Cut each bacon strip in half and place two halves on top of each pork chop.  Mix together BBQ sauce and beer in small bowl.  Pour over bacon and pork chops.  If some sauce remains heat and add for extra sauce when eating.  Bake pork chops for 15-20 minutes depending on thickness.  Once cooked thoroughly, eat and enjoy.  Mashed potatoes, green beans, and rolls make for a completely delicious meal!
            Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture before eating (because it was sooo good) but this is a picture of our left overs!! Gotta have those left overs for school tomorrow!  Oh by the way, this was a DELICIOUS meal.  Even Moe enjoyed it and could not believe that they were pork chops.  They had so much flavor and were very tender.  The mashed potatoes were the perfect accompaniment. This made for a wonderful evening....accept for the pile of dishes that were created.... least favorite part of cooking.
          I love learning/finding new recipes. Pinterest is wonderful for this.  Any fun new recipes that you have found?  Eventually I want to get to a point where I have my own box of recipe cards rather than always looking things up online, but for now that will do.  Also moving to a different country with different foods probably does not help that desire but alas we do what we can.  Honestly the food/market experience is something we are both looking most forward to.  Anyway, sorry for the rant.  You should try the recipe.  It was phenomenal.

Yard Sale Blessings

          Yesterday was our yard sale. Moe and I put most of our possessions up for sale which was crazy.  Even though we have only had most of our things for almost a year, we have become surprisingly emotionally attached. I could not believe how hard it was to decide what things to sell.  Getting ready for a yard sale is hard work!!
          Anyway, my parents neighborhood has an annual yard sale which is a big hit and lots and lots and lots of people come out. This year we joined them and had a great turn out. I was so blessed by how many people came out.  Yard sale shoppers are hard core.  It wasn't supposed to start until 9am but we had people walking up as we were setting things out at 7am, not to mention the people that were driving by the night before to see who was having sales! 
          It was such a wonderful day. The weather was wicked hot  beautiful. The people were for the most part genuinely nice. (Except for a few crazy people) It was a time for catching up with old friends and meeting new people.  Seeing new people appreciate old things brings a new perspective on living. 
          One of my favorite things about yard sales is how it brings people together.  Although my teaching career has been quite short, I have already collected teacher things that I needed to get rid of.  It was so great to see people walk right up to my teacher things and get excited. The bond of teachers is so much greater than I ever realized. It was with the other teachers that I was able to share my new adventures with and feel truly understood and appreciated.  It was such a blessing to me.  
          Another wonderful blessing was the success of the yard sale.  Most of the success was because of the tradition of the yard sale and the amount of people it draws.  But because of that we were able to sell most of our things.  We made more money than I was expecting which is awesome considering we are moving half way across the world! The things that we did not sell went to Goodwill, Victory Mission, or consignment stores. So hopefully someone will be blessed by the rest of our things. 
          Yard sales and moving have made me realize how quickly we can accumulate things. We have been living in our apartment for only 9 months and already had way too much stuff. I have realized that in the future we need to be much more careful about accumulating things and working on living more simply.  But today I realize how blessed I am. We were supported by random strangers who bartered for our things, friends who we gave discounts to, and long lost friends and family who stopped by just give us money and their love.  It was a such a blessing-filled, wonderful weekend.  

packing up our things

          Well the time has come for us to pack up our things... well sort of. My parents neighborhood is having their annual garage sale this weekend and we are jumping right in!! We have decided to sell as much as possible in hopes to help pay for this transition!  However I have been very, very unmotivated to get organized for it. I know that part of the reason is because I have NO idea what I'm doing. I cant decide what things I want to keep and what things we are willing to sell. Some things I am more emotionally attached to than others.  But again the goal is to raise money so I guess I have to be willing to sell it all...for the right price of course. But what is the right price. This is another area of concern, I am terrrrrrible at pricing things so yet another frustration.  
          I think I am also avoiding making progress. Selling our things means we are one step closer to moving and making this whole new adventure a reality, a reality that I'm not sure I have completely processed yet. Sure I'm excited and sure I'm nervous but I should probably have a few other emotions in there as well. I don't want to go through my possessions and decide what I want to take with me, what I want to store for TWO years at least and what I want sell. Two years is a long time. I don't know what I will want when I come back or what will still be in style or still function properly.  I don't know. I wish I could call in one of those HGTV shows like Sell this House or something and get them to sell all of my stuff and figure out what needs to be kept! That would be awesome
          I know I am probably thinking too much about this situation but I'm allowed! I also know that in the grand scheme of life two years is really not that much and everything will work out fine. But currently things are a little overwhelming and the thought of selling all my possessions has motivated me to do nothing but write a blog post :)

official changes!!

Well it’s official.  Hubby and I are moving and starting a brand new adventure.  We are leaving everything behind, trusting God and the plan that he has laid before us.  There is still a lot to be figured out but Moe and I are excited to begin this new journey.  We will be leaving the week of July 18^th for a period of two years.

I was offered and have accepted a 4^th grade teaching position at Chiang Mai International School (CMIS), in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  I am so excited and nervous to have my own classroom. Moe will potentially be going to grad school there which would be awesome for him!! He could also tutor or do many other things. 

Since it’s an international school the kids all know English and I will be teaching in English.  It is also my understanding that most of the community knows some English as well, although the school will be providing us some Thai lessons. The school will help with housing, food, language, and other transitional things.  It will be quite the journey.

We will have internet and what not so facebook and skype are still available but for most updates about events and pictures and things follow this blog!!! 

Again we are both very excited about this adventure.  We covet your prayers as we get everything organized and planned. We would love to see as many people as possible before we leave so please contact us if you want to get together!!

two-fold: patience and purpose

The first thing I want to take care of is the purpose of this blog. I started it with the purpose of discussing teacher things but as of right now I am taking a different path.  This blog will be for personal revelations, stories, and life updates ;) I'm sure some teacher things will be in here as well since that is my life but I will probably start another blog for that sole purpose! So hopefully you are willing to follow me as I share life with you. 

Secondly, patience.  What looks like a simple word is a life long struggle for me.  Today was yet another test of this.  I went on a field/mission trip with a class of freshman. We were working hard outside at a camp site cleaning it up. It was overall a good productive day. There were only a few times were I really had to get on the kids to keep working. They were great. But as the day was winding down, we had to trek back to where we began... a loooooong way away. We finally got there, relaxed, and waited for the bus.... and waited......and waited. We had to wait for over 45 minutes for the bus to arrive. Unfortunately and surprisingly, the teens handled the situation better than I did. I was very hot and tired and frustrated. After quite some time, I realized that most of the students had moved on and were talking about other things and laughing and having a good time.  I was put in my place. I knew that I could do nothing but waiting kept getting at me. It wasn't until the bus arrived that I said to myself 'that wasn't that bad'. Now sitting on my comfy couch thinking about my day, the parts that I remember were the good parts, the productive parts, the bonding times. I've learned today, and know I will learn it multiple more times, that I need to keep perspective. Waiting on a bus to take me home is not going to ruin me. I need to learn to be patient, especially when things are out of my hands.  So that is my lesson for the day.  Patience.  What are you learning or working on in your life?