Just in case

Just in case you did not know it already, I have a WONDERFUL hubby.  Moe is truly amazing.  He is such a blessing to me.

Yesterday I came home from a rough day at work and saw these on the kitchen table.....

and these were in the bedroom.....

Isn't he perfect! (that comment was for you, daddy!)

Anyway, Moe truly is great.  Even though he is now working full time (subbing for maternity leave), he is still tutoring 2 times a week, going to Thai class with me 2 times a week, and has soccer practice 3 if not 4 times a week.... clearly that does not add up for a normal school week.  He is super busy but super great.  He is doing all of this without complaint, for the most part of course.

Just wanted to brag on my hubby for a little bit because he deserves it.  I definitely would not be where I am today without him.

Sad news and good news

Things have been so crazy around here.  It has literally been one thing after the next.  But we are focusing on the good.

Yesterday, Suzy had a really rough day and seemed to be getting worse as the day went on.  We assumed that it was because she had been so sick and was just overwhelmed.  Unfortunately, she passed on during the night.  Moe and I were both very, very sad.  We buried her in the back by the river and shared one last moment together.  It is sad not having her presence around anymore and hearing her little whimpers.  We only had her a week but she definitely left her mark. She is and will be greatly missed.

In effort to not dwell on the situation much, we had a very busy day. We went to the grocery near by, Tesco Lotus which is similar to Walmart but a little smaller, with friends and got a bunch of things for our house.  We finally got a drying rack to dry our clothes and a bookcase to put by the door for our things.  We got cleaning supplies and some groceries.  We are finally settling in to the house and it now looks like people eat here as well as sleep here!  While we were out I treated myself to some Dunkin' Donuts and it was lovely! Overall a productive trip to the grocery.

This evening we went out to our friends house for dinner.  It was a wonderful time.  They grilled for us.  We had corn on the cob, green beans, bread, marinated pork tenderloin things, chicken wings, and yellow curry.  The spread was magnificent.  It was good to be away from the house and sharing life with others.

In between the grocery and dinner I ran to the market store place with Julie to buy "treasure box" items for my kids.  I was expecting like a Dollar Store type place. She had told me there were toys and things that were really cheap.  I was blown away! The store was a hole in the wall that had bulk of EVERYTHING.  For example they had these invisible pens.  Each pen is 10 baht but you have to buy the whole pack of 12.

Every item came like this.  The price per item was at the top and there were generally 12 items per package. This is silly puddy with fun things inside like hands or eye balls!  They are 5 baht each.

These things are so cool.  They are Iphones!! Ha. They are Iphone shaped water games.  Remember those games that have water and balls inside and you push the buttons to push the balls around.  Well thats what these do but are shaped like Iphones.  SO COOL!

I bought 12 packages like this.  I spent 1,050 baht which sounds like a lot, but the kids are helping me pay!  But look at this:  I got 144 items.  That is 7 baht per item.  That is $.23 per item!!!!! That would NEVER happen in the States.  I am so so so so so so so so so pumped.  This amount of things will probably last me the whole year.  I almost wish it didnt so I could go back and find more awesome things.  

All in all it was a good day.  It started very rough but again we are focusing on the good.  We are continuing to set up house.  I have found some amazing deals for things for my classroom.  We have spent wonderful time with friends.  We are so blessed to be here and take on each new challenge as they come.  

Changing roles

We have now been here for 7 weeks and we are finally settling in to a place of our own.  We love it here.  Our house is cozy but probably too big for just the 2 of us!  I feel like we need to have parties every day just to make use of all the space.  BUT we are slowly filling the holes and marking our territory.  Last weekend we went to Big C Extra, similar to Walmart, and spent a lot of money.  It was like shopping right after our wedding.  We bought almost everything we could need.  Things like sheets, silverware, dishes, pots and pans, towels, bathroom supplies, hangers, and many other things.  Somehow we did manage to forget a few things like trash cans (even though we bough the bags) and a hanging rack for drying our clothes.  Anyway, we are settling in that is the important part!

What I really wanted to share today is how Moe and I have changed over these 7 weeks.  In some ways we have almost reversed roles as to when we lived in the States.  It is quite silly but also quite interesting to me.  Moe has given me permission to share this stuff so dont get your panties in a bunch (gee I love that phrase!)

The most obvious one to me is driving. In America, I was the "risky" driver (if we can even call it that).  I would speed and cut corner or whatever.  Moe would stay behind a car, barely reaching the speed limit and not even think about anything "risky".  But here, Moe is all over the place driving.  He is driving down the center lane of traffic with cars on both sides coming both ways.  He is passing cars on the shoulder and sometimes getting hit by tree branches just to get ahead.  He has definitely adopted the Thai way of driving motorbikes.  If I were driving.... oh boy. I would be staying behind a car the entrie way.  I would go slow just to be safe.  Please notice that I am using the future tense, would.  Driving here still scares me even though I definitely enjoy riding.

Another area we have changed roles is with our worry.  Back in the west :) I would be the one to worry about everything.  I would be paranoid that something might happen or we might die or get lost or whatever. Here Moe is that way.  He always has to have a map or know exactly where he is going.  He is paranoid we are going to get broken into or lose our bike.  Thailand is a safe place but he isnt so sure!  Now, I should make it clear that this doesnt mean I have stopped worrying! I still worry about my classroom or my kiddos but not getting lost or going to the grocery store or trying to talk to people.

The other area is money. In America, I would shop all the time and not worry about the money I was spending.  Here I am the one watching every baht and worrying when I think something is too expensive.  Moe on the other hand has no care for it all! He is buying stuff all the time and doesn't worry about how much it costs.  (I think this is related to my dilemma with money but that is a story for another time)  Today I found a pair of shoes that I liked that were 200 baht.  I was afraid to get them because I thought that was too much money.  Moe glared at me and reminded me that it was only 6 USD and that I was getting them.  He is so cute.  We also went ahead and splurged on a box of popcorn.  3 bags for 109 baht which is about $3.50.  That really is a little expensive for popcorn but we were craving something salty!

AND to top off all of Moe's money habits.  Today he bought me flowers.  TWO different kinds.  He must really love me!  He found some ceramic shop that he loved and bought 2 vases and a toothbrush holder that we have been needing.  He didnt want to just bring home empty vases so he bought flowers as well!! He must have known that I had a hard day at work today!

So there you have it.  Moe is wonderful.  Our roles in some things are suddenly totally opposite.  It just goes to show that people can change!  It has definitely opened our eyes, challenged us, and given us new appreciation for life.  We are loving each new adventure and appreciative of each new day!

First Anniversary!

          A year ago today my life changed forever. I married my best friend and confidant. It has been a crazy year.  But exciting none the less. We moved 21/2 times. We both had multiple jobs. We spent lots of time with family and friends.  We traveled all over...Ohio and Michigan at least).
         We are also very very excited about what our future has in store.  We can not wait to see what the future holds and what the years ahead will entail.  More than that though we are excited to continue to share in the journey together and be with one another.
          Ok thats enough of the mushy stuff.  At least you now know (hopefully) how much we really do love each other.  But this whole anniversary thing has made my craftiness come to life.  I wanted to do something to honor our anniversary but nothing too crazy.
Oh my word, my husband is launching his socks off of his toes.... Good thing I got the mushy stuff out of the way first... wow I married a mature man...
ANYWAY!!! I wanted something that we could take with us to Thailand and continue but also something that was fun and would last our lifetime.  I love the picture holding your previous anniversary.  Here is the only example I can find... sorry for the picture, I cant find the original :(  The only problem I have with this is I'm not sure if we will be able to maintain this while we are in Thailand.  The other bonus is that Moe likes this idea too!  That is always a plus when he is excited about something.  Unfortunately we forgot to take the picture today so hopefully tomorrow we can take one.  We decided we might as well take it and then we can later decide if we like it.  I thought it would be fun to do it for major anniversarys or every 5 years or something so that we dont have to do it every year.
          I also found this lovely idea which involves making an album specifically for anniversary pictures.  All we would have to do is take a photo every year and add it to the album.  We could add something about what we did or top events of the year or something.  I REALLY like this picture and concept original idea found here.  So I decided to start on this project.  Since we did not have a whole lot of time I quickly grabbed one of our wedding photos that we already love and added a block to the bottom.  I also took our picture from this year and added a count to the bottom of it as well.  What do you think?  Should we have something explaining what we did on our anniversary or explain what happened that year?  Do you have any other ideas for projects or fun anniversary things?

In case anyone actually cares, here are the pictures that I made/what we took today!  Any thoughts?