Life

I have been feeling quite discouraged this week.  For no one particular reason, but a handful of things have left me feeling this way.

The guidance counselor at school comes to my classroom once a week.  She is teaching the students how to identify and name their feelings.  There is even a song that gets stuck in my head.  Anyway, not every situation makes you made or sad.  Identify which one so that then you can deal with it.  It has challenged me to do the same.  Moe came to school at the end of the day yesterday and asked me how my day was. I told him frustrating.  But after I thought about it some more I realized it wasnt frustrating but discouraging.  Maybe its because of the discouragement that I feel frustrated but whatever!

Anyway, in effort to lift my spirits I wanted to share some news... no Mom I am not pregnant!!!

I have officially signed another 2 year contract to stay at my school.  Moe has one more year of grad school here so we are staying for that.  Plus we like it here so we went for the big 2 year :)

I am also staying in 4th grade.  Thankfully my school allows you to stay where you are unless you wish to move, so that is nice.

I have officially booked my ticket home for the summer.  However, as I have learned flights tend to get rescheduled so things could change.  But currently I am scheduled to arrive home on Sunday June 15th, and depart for Chiang Mai on Sunday August 3rd.  Except for August 1st my schedule is open so let's hang out!!

It is almost half way through February and I have still yet to turn on my airconditioner in my classroom!! That is about 5.5 weeks!  I am so proud of myself! That rarely happens.  The weather had been beautiful.

I have been having my students type up a report.  It is amazing to me what they can not transfer or do not know.  Although they have the red lines under misspelled words, spelling errors are still rampant.  OR they dont understand why their Korean word translated to English has the red line under it!  They dont realize that just like handwriting, you have to put spaces after periods or commas.  You have to capitalize letters, it does not do it for you! Also, the concept of saving information, or having more than one page saved in a document, is mind-blowing.  However, I must give credit to our computer teacher.  She is amazing, my kids just dont get it yet!

Obligatory Chico reference: I went away to Bangkok for a work conference and Chico did not like that I was leaving.  He tried to go with me.

Oh! And Moe and I were at the import grocery store and found this.  Yes you are seeing that right.  That is 8 pieces of deli turkey breast for 230 Thai baht which is equivalent to almost 7 (SEVEN) dollars!  We had a good laugh and then I was saddened by how expensive it is!  Mom you better have some turkey breast stocked up when I get home!

Although I am trying to teach my students not to do this, I am doing it anyway...

That's all! I'm done.  

ramblings from today

Random thoughts for today....full of fun capitalization, smiley faces, and ...s :)

Mosquitos are everywhere!! I have tons in my classroom :(  The school sprays the campus every month to get rid of them, but still they exist.  I pick up my helmet (which sits in my basket on my bike) to go home, and out comes 4-8 mosquitoes.  I shake my shoes which sit outside our door at home and out come 8-10 of them.  UGH!!! Its annoying, not gonna lie.

I have learned the benefit of stopping in the shade at a red light regardless of if the shade is 10 feet behind the line...some people stop even 100 ft back just for shade.  I might feel a little ridiculous when I do it but it is definitely worth it.

Chico is learning too fast.  He can now open his cage, so we have had to come up with some contraption.  He uses the couch like a trampoline and jumps all over it.  We have a kitty ball hanging from the back door where Chico goes outside,  he has finally actually learned how to push/move it when he wants to go outside.  He just opened our gate (a large box that covers the steps) and got upstairs while Moe wasn't paying attention.  He knows that if he whines while I am doing something, I will probably stop and pet him. Why does he have to grow up so fast ;)

Moe and I have officially mastered making chicken wings.  We got a variety of BBQ sauce for Christmas, they only have 1 kind here and it is sorta expensive, and have been using them a LOT.  Today we added french fries to the meal and it was perfect... perfectly unhealthy.  BUT at least we dont fry the wings...right?

excuse our Christmas place-mats... really placemats is not correct google???

Today I ran/jogged for one minute in class with my kids.... I was waaay too tired after that.  :(

The weather this week has been wonderful. :)  (mentioning this specifically for my Midwest friends!!) The mornings are a bit chilly on the motorbike ride to school, but the afternoons are beautiful. I love all the sunshine and warmth....someone should remind me that I am saying this come March/April and hot season.

I have been doing a lot of reading and I imagine it will only continue.  I have 4 book clubs at school, 4 books I havent read and am reading along with the kids.  A couple books I am reading on my own. And stuff for my own classes and professional development stuff.  It is sorta crazy considering not too long ago I didnt read anything!

Sleeping has not been my friend recently... well at least not at the right times.  I havent been able to go to bed at a reasonable time for a person who wants to be at work at 7ish.  However, ask me to take a nap sometime between 230(when I tell my kids to go home) and 5 and I am out like a light...ugh.  The past 2 days I have not taken naps so hopefully I will start getting back in to routine.

Since this post is about all things random, here is a picture of Chico.... measured to banana scale.

that means he is only as long as 3 bananas.  

New Year

Finally getting around to posting again....

This New Year's Eve was spent similar to last year.  We went over to friends house.  We played games.  Then we came back here to watch the fireworks from our rooftop.  It was very cool in my opinion.  We could literally see fireworks all around us.  Our heads were spinning trying to catch everything that happened.  The restaurant across the street from us did not do anything this year.  I still dont know how I feel about that.  It was nice because it was MUCH quieter.  But not nice because they were soooo close and sooooo cool.  We enjoyed the festivities for sure.  I later (12 hours later) skyped with my family during the countdown on the east coast, so I am proud to say that I celebrated the new year twice!

In my Bible study we talked briefly about our goals for the year.  I decided I should share mine in efforts to make them happen for real.... (I am well aware that some are way to vague and broad, but I tried to make some attainable and realistic too!)  Also they are in no particular order.

-  Be intentional about relationships
-  Spend quality time with family and friends
-  Cook more dinners/Try new recipes
-  Travel (to the beach, Malaysia, and America)
-  Finish this school year to the best of my abilities
-  Be more specifically encouraging to my students - not just "keep going" "you're doing great"
-  Get organized
-  Blog more - new goal, twice a month....
-  Be more budget conscious & Save
-  Read 15 books.  (I read at least 17 this year, but more than half of them were from my class library...)


okay thats all I have for now.  I would love to hear about your goals for the new year!

This week was quite eventful.  We all started back to school.  And we all got hair cuts.  Sorry for the poor quality, but here is what we all look like now!!

Recap Nov. & Dec.

In attempt to get back into blogging let me go back and share some things that have happened.  I do hope to be better at blogging in the future ;)

Thanksgiving was a great day.  We did have school all day.  Friday was a teacher development day, so no kids but had to go to meetings.  After that Moe and I went to a friends house for Thanksgiving meal. There were 3 couples there.  I made mashed potatoes and corn and we cut up veggies.  I had not ever cooked for that many people before so I had no idea how much to make.  PLUS we had to ride the motorbike.  So it was interesting to say the least.  We are getting very good at being resourceful!  Anyway, dinner was wonderful.  We enjoyed our time for sure!!

Christmas was great as well.  Moe and I both had 2.5 weeks off of school.  We spent a great deal of time relaxing and spending time together. Christmas Eve we watched a movie together and pizza for dinner at our favorite place.  I went to a candle light Christmas Eve service at 11pm with a friend.  It was very nice.  Christmas day we pretended that we were home and everything was closed.  We slept in a little.  Then made French toast and bacon for breakfast.  We took naps, skyped with family, opened presents, and made dinner together.  We made barbecue chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn.  It was wonderful.  We enjoyed our holiday.  Hopefully here is a link to look at some pictures.  Christmas images  (included in there are my doors from school.  I love to decorate for the holidays!!)

Also we got a handful of gifts from our family.  We are truly blessed by those of you who sent us things.  Thank you so much.  While we can get many things here, it is such a treat to get a box at school full of goodies!

Overall we had a wonderful holiday break.  We enjoyed not doing much and spending time together.  I however am ready and excited to get back to routine and to school!!

I trust you all had a wonderful holiday as well.  Love and miss you!

3-D Art Museum - Art in Paradise

One of the adventures Moe and I went on during the week off was to Art in Paradise, the 3-D art exhibit.  We had a blast.  Moe is much better at the photo taking ideas though!!

excuse my finger.. But this is the entrance to the museum. 

first room.  

scary sharks

Finally scuba diving.

Moe swimming

Chatting with penguins

beautiful giraffes 

surfing...in jeans.

elephants :)

Moe playing cards

shepherd woman with an iphone???

Moe taking wine 

riding a gondola in Italy... some day!!

crossing a bridge

waiting for the next exhibit and enjoying our time exploring

Moe flying!

Moe falling down the wall

hiding in a sand timer thing

riding on a magic carpet

puppet Moe

My head itched

Moe was afraid

Ive always wanted to be on a magazine for best smile :)

Moe on a magazine not falling off a cliff

jumping over lava

running from dinosaurs

long neck dinosaurs

Moe

just painting the walls.

We had a great time.  Thankfully we got the local price because we tried to speak Thai to them! It was fun and surprisingly very busy.  I'm glad we went.  What fun!

The rest of our break was spent lounging.  Moe had class and a soccer tournament. I went with him to a couple of games when the weather was nice, and gladly stayed home when it was raining!  We went shopping and out to restaurants that we had not been to in a while.  We slept in and cuddled with Chico.  It was a great break, but honestly, I am ready to get back to work! There are so many things to do!!

New restaurant adventures!

October break is a beautiful thing. Whoever thought that up was genius! I love having a week off, especially after parent-teacher conferences.

Anyway, I enjoyed lunch with a friend one day.  We went to a restaurant called Sausage King!

The restaurant was beautiful.  All outside covered seating, with beautiful flowers surrounding. 

Here is the "inside" part. and the bar.

My meal of beef stew... the mashed potatoes but the stew was wonderful!!

Friend's meal: burger and fries. 

Also there were chickens.... everywhere.

It was a great restaurant.  I can't wait to take Moe there.  Food of all kinds: western, Thai, Indian, and more.  This will definitely be added to our list of restaurants!  Welcome to the world of Thai style restaurants.

Boasting on my weekend

I had a SUPER productive weekend!!! I thought I would share.

Friday I took my volleyball players out to ice cream to celebrate our short season. It was fun.  I got back to school excited to get some work done.  I ended up taking a bunch of work home.

When I got home however, I was hit with exhaustion.  I took a nap, made dinner, and was exhausted again by 7, thinking it was 9 or 10!!  I was cranky too....just ask Moe.  We argued a little and he sent me to bed! I gladly went to bed early.  Before I turned out the light I finished reading the book I am reading out loud to my students.  Is it weird that I get excited to read books made for kids?

I slept then for 11 hours!!!!! I woke up in time to skype with a friend. Then I skyped with my momma!

The rest of Saturday and Sunday contained:
-  Planning meals for the week
-  Grocery shopping at 2 grocery stores
-  Printing resources for school (LOTS AND LOTS!!!)
-  Cutting resources for school
-  Buying headphones so Moe doesnt get mad at me!
-  Making dinners
-  Going to church
-  Making things for school
-  Beginning report cards EARLY!!
-  Grading some autobiographies
-  Playing with the puppy
-  Napping
-  Finishing a grown up book
-  Buying a new keyboard for my computer

I think that is about covers it.  With that I am going to bed!