Baking

I really enjoy baking!  Recently we started taking the food stipend, instead of having the cooks make our meals.  It's been a good change and a nice break from Thai food.

After our big Thanksgiving meal I got to have some of the left over turkey.  I made a turkey pot pie.  It turned out really well!

I also made some bread dough and we had homemade pizza.

I have been making some treats as well.  I thought baking might make it feel a bit more holiday-ish.  I thought about those peanut butter kiss cookies and couldn't get them out of my head.  They don't have regular chocolate kisses here, so we did Hershey's nuggets, some hazelnut kisses and some Toblerone.  They were a success.   

Tanner's Tutoring

Tanner does English tutoring for 2-3 hours a day.  He moslty tutors elementary-high school aged kids, but he also works with a few of the parents.  His tutoring with the parent on Tuesdays and Thursday morning is his favorite.  They eat a lot, go on adventures and cook together.

At a temple with D-Day's dad:

At a posh little restaurant with Ink's mom and dad:

Cooking lasagna with D-Day's dad:

Thai noodles for lunch after tutoring:

He has also make a few fun movies with his younger students.  I'll try to remember to get those from him to share.

More Bugs

This place grows bugs really well.  I wish they would excel at something different, like making the best hamburgers or fluffiest beds, but alas...

This grasshopper was about 2 1/2 to 3 inches long.

This guy was small, but had a fancy pattern.

Fall School Visit + the Chinese

Each semester someone from the ILP office comes for a visit.  They check up on the school and the teachers and make sure things are going smoothly.  This year there were people from 4 different schools in China that came as well.  Tang does a really great job running her school and they wanted to see!  The Chinese took us out to dinner at a Thai restaurant.

On the way to the restaurant Ake needed to get Flynn from the hospital where he was visiting his grandma.  He parked right here.  I thought that the spot right in front of the ambulance was an interesting choice.  It reminded me of how there are so many small things here that are so different from the United States.

Fish

Little octopus

Papaya Salad

We think this was pork back (we could see some of the backbone).

Suzy and me giving a thumbs up for the food we didn't eat.



The next day there were lots of people in around the school observing.  We got Pad Thai for lunch then the Chinese left.  That evening we went to dinner again (this time just Tang, Ake, Ton, Jared and the teachers).  We went to a hot pot restaurant.  It's always nice when there is a change of pace or new people or experiences.  The day to day can get a little dull so it was nice to mix it up.

Two Years Ago

Two years ago I remember sitting at my parents' table.  I was talking to my older brothers.  I was feeling like I didn't know what to do next.  It felt like there were 3 major choices:  move out of the country and teach abroad for a while, save up to try IVF (since we'd gotten out of debt and could apply that money towards saving), or buy Tanner's late grandmother's house.

I talked to my brothers and got their input.  They all agreed that all 3 were good choices.

Shortly after that conversation I went out to dinner with some of my former roommates.  I talked to them about teaching abroad or buying that house.  One of my room mates said, "Could you just do both?"  When she first said that my initial thought was no.

Well... Turns out that we didn't have to pick one.  I applied for this job here in Thailand.  We put our house on the market and got an offer within 24 hours!  We made enough off the sale of our house that we had a down payment for our next house!  Tanner had to stay around in Arizona to finalize the sale of one house and purchase of the next house.  That meant that I spend 2 1/2 half (fairly tough) months here without him.  But it worked out!  And when we go home in about 6 months we have a new (to us) house to go home to.

We had been able to do 2 or the 3 major options.

When we got here I found out that the school owner had seen a fertility doctor quite recently.  She was able to facilitate an appointment and we were able to explore our third major option!  Since being here we have done a couple of (unsuccessful) rounds of IVF for a fraction of what it would have been in the states.

My brother recently reminded me of the conversation we had a couple years ago.  It's crazy how things have just worked out and we have been able to do the things we wanted!  Our 'new' house needs a lot of love, money and renovations.  We didn't get pregnant doing IVF.   We will have to find new jobs (and just generally figure out what we want to do with our lives) when we get home.  We'll have to start paying bills again.  We will have to get another car.  We will be starting a new phase of our lives together.  There are lots of things to figure out when we get home, but hopefully things will continue to work out, just like they have these past 2 years.  On that note, if anyone knows of any great jobs that will have openings in May let us know :)

Loi Krathong: Lantern Festival 2015

Last year we spent the lantern festival up in Chiang Mai.  It was one of the most incredible things I have ever experienced!  It was also the sort of thing that you do once and call it good.  So this year we stuck around Phichit.  During the day we went to the temple with the students and they sent their water lanterns down the river.  We did that the day before the official lantern festival.

The next night we went to the temple with a couple friends.  Ink is a student at the school and we went with her and her mom and dad.  Tanner is friends with her parents since she was his English student for a while.  They took us to the festival and out to ice cream after.

First with his lantern that looked like a crown.

Lin's mom made her lantern out of salad ingredients!  They try to make sure that the lanterns are made out of things from nature (tons of banana leaves) or things the fish will eat.  The fish really loved the ones made of bread!  It was fun to watch them attack them.

Tunwa

Ioon

For some reason the young monks were collecting rocks and putting them in a bucket...

Mhew

I shared a seat with MeMe and Many on the bus.

The preschool kids didn't go to the temple, but when I got back to the school I saw this:

I loved that this big centerpiece/picture area was made of fruits and veggies.

I loved that they had lights on the temple.

New School

The new school is coming right along.  I went by with Ton before we saw Mockingjay as he had some business to attend to.  We were there for a couple hours so I took pictures of the progress and read my book.  I also got a picture of the huge billboard/poster at the front of the school.  I feel like I'm the face of this school.  Haha.

The makeshift bridge over the trench.  It felt about as safe as it looks.

The library has tile!

The wiring in the ceiling is getting done.

The front of the school and Ton's truck.

This thing is seriously huge.  I'd say it's about 10 feet by 25 feet.