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!