Making House

This post was supposed to be revealed much earlier in the week but some of you know that I had a fall on my motorbike that delayed things.  I am still not entirely sure what happened to create the fall. All I know is it happened and I am alive.  I know I was stopped at a dead end, coming home from the grocery. I accelerated into the turn and somehow ended up on the ground.  Thankfully I wasn't going too fast nor was it raining.  My arm is scraped up pretty good and I have other cuts and bruises along the left side of my body, but it is manageable.

Anyway, I really wanted to share that Moe and I are finally settling in to our apartment.  While we have almost been here for a year we are just now starting to make our apartment our own.  While we have put in our own clothing and kitchen supplies and what not, we are just now starting to put up our own decorations and pictures.  It is a process that makes me very happy and relieved.

Before I show you pictures I have a slight tangent.... Moe has officially been accepted into university here in Chiang Mai in order to get his Masters.  The program is called Sustainable Development.  It will be in English and with people from all over the world.  Moe and I are both SOOOOO excited.  It is a 2 year program so that does mean that we will be for 2 more years.

Anyway,  here are the things we have done to the house, some being purchases and others being creations!  I hope we (lets be real, I) continue to do things to make our place a little more us!

We bought this beautiful bowl made out of mango wood and hand painted.  Moe and I both love it and hope to add other pieces to our collection!

We also bought this lovely rice container to decorate with.

We bought the vase to match the rice container and hopefully will get fresh flowers in there soon... hint hint Moe!!

Put all of those things together in our Dining Room and this is what you get!

I then made this collage of pictures of our friends and family.  It is HUGE.  Taller than me.  It hangs in our bedroom and makes us happy every morning and night!  

Finally, the piece I am probably the most proud of because it took the most work. I have been loving chevron and wanted something in our house that was chevron.  I noticed that our neighbors (the mechanics) sell spray paint.  So I got crafty and made this beauty.  I printed the letters, glued it on black and then onto yellow popsicle sticks.  Then I did the chevron which took FOREVER! I attached the letters to the board.  I am still hoping to find a better way to hang the picture but for now I approve of it leaning against the wall.

This is our new sitting area at the top of the stairs.  We bought the 2 chairs and the tablecloth.  The other pieces (yes even the flowers) were included in the house just in other locations.  I am very pleased with it so far, though it is not perfect by any means.  We are hoping to get a smaller table and maybe a bookcase for upstairs as well, but that is a little ways away.

Well that is where we are for now.  I have 1.5 weeks of summer school left.  We are hoping to travel here soon, but will keep you posted on that when it comes!

Summer

I made it through my first year of teaching.  I truly can not believe it.  I learned so much this year and am so thankful for all of it.  The journey has been one to remember for sure.  I will forever treasure this first class and the impression they have left on my heart.

But the joys of being a teacher is that a new year is just around the corner and I have already begun planning new things for next year.  I have new goals, new dreams, new plans, new everything! It is beautiful.  I am so glad that even after a semi-crazy/chaotic year, I still love teaching and want to begin a new year.

Anyway, school is over...well sort of.  I am doing summer school so it isn't really over for me.  I had one week off to 'plan' but really I did basically nothing! It was beautiful.  Summer school is not for failing kids but more like school or activities that engage the brain to keep kids occupied.  Last year  was the first year the school did it and most kids were Korean, straight from Korea speaking NO English.  I was weary of participating this year but was encouraged that would not happen again.

When it came down to it, the last week of regular school there were only 8 kids who had signed up for summer school... definitely not enough. So things were adjusted from having about 10 teachers to lead summer school to 2 teachers, myself and another new teacher.  By the Monday after school let out we had 15 kids.  By the following Monday when it was supposed to start we had 19 kids.  It was crazy.  We did get a Thai aid (from our school) to help us as well so that is great.

Summer school is 3 weeks long for kids in grades 1-6.  Each week we go on a half day field trip and a whole day field trip.  We do all kinds of fun things like playing and eating and reading and cooking and games and crafts and stuff. It has been quite enjoyable.  We just finished our first week!! Only two more weeks to go!  We did end up with a handful of Korean students who speak little to no English.  That in itself has been a learning experience for me to figure out how to communicate with them without making them feel childish! whew.  Some of them are very challenging.

On our first field trip we went to the Botanical Gardens.  Here are a few pictures.

As soon as you walk in to gardens! It was beautiful

Large building dedicated to King

Pretty Waterfall

coconut garden.. I think.

The second field trip we went to Adventure Land where we did ziplining, tight rope walking, rock climbing, swinging, animal petting and more.  It was quite adventurous for some of the kids and we had a handful of teary eyes.  But by the end we had lots of smiles and tired kids, which in my opinion is always good!  Here is my attempt at the rock wall... dont judge me!

Here is a link to the blog about Summer Camp if you truly want to know more!  http://blogs.cmis.ac.th/summercamp/

In celebration of me conquering my fears of heights for the day by doing these things, Moe and I went out to dinner to a place we have been talking about going for awhile.  It was very good.  I got potato skins and chicken finger appetizers ;) I have not had these things in SOOO long that it was a beautiful treat.  Moe had a nice burger.  We will probably return there!

Anniversary # 2

Moe and I have happily survived 2 years of marriage.  We cant believe all the changes that we have endured this year and how much we have grown so far.  We are truly blessed!

We woke up to a chilly day. It was cloudy and windy.  It was nice but I was fearful of rain. After breakfast and googling, I had some personal things I needed to do around town.  Moe was quite okay sitting at home playing video games!  I went to school and worked for a few short minutes.  I then ran into a friend and we decided to enjoy the market on the cool day.  It was quite enjoyable.  I bought a new skirt and some things for my crafts!  She and I then went to lunch.   I then headed home...on my own driving the motorbike... It is still scary for me!

Around 4, Moe and I decided to get our date night started.  We began with dessert, mostly because the place closes early but also because we thought it would be fun to have a "mixed up" date night.  We went to a little place called Bite out of Heaven that has amazing desserts, pies, cakes, etc.  I had Red Velvet cake and Moe had Oreo Cheesecake.  Both were DELICIOUS!

We then went back home and watched a movie/tv show.  We were going to actually go to the movies but I was too afraid of getting caught in the rain.  The movie theater is a good 30 minute drive, so we decided not to risk it.

We were originally going to wait awhile until dinner but after one episode we decided we were too hungry to wait longer! I think the dessert got us more hungry.  So, we headed out to Arcobaleno, a fancy Italian restaurant.  We had only been there once, so we were excited to go again.  After we ordered our meal, I asked our waitress to take our picture.  She loved it! It was so cute.  I LOVE this picture too. She did great! I think it does a good job of showing that we are in the tropics!  

For dinner, we started with an appetizer of Baby Clams. It was definitely the Thai version with lots of Thai basil, garlic, and oil.  It was quite good and we were excited to try something new.  For entres, I had chicken cordon bleu and Moe had salmon in fettuccine with a cream sauce.   Both were delicious! Here is mine. It didnt look as appealing but it tasted great!!  Ignore the creepy man in the background ;)

We came home stuffed! We had such a good time.  We talked and watched another episode.  Then I went upstairs and crafted.  I will share my things next time.  In honor of our hopeful tradition of anniversary pictures here is all 3 of our June 11 photos.

Oh and Happy Anniversary to my Grandparents Cal and Dottie Knight.  They are such a blessing to me and I hope that they had a wonderful anniversary as well! We miss you.