The Cousins

Over Christmas, we had a great time hanging out with the cousins. Lucy and Crosby had never met little Wyatt, aka Chunk-o, as well as Betsy and Bucky, Britta's husband. We were ALMOST all together again, just missing Heidi. Here are some great, yet silly pictures of the whole fam damily. SOOOO glad to be together!!!!

Mama's Kitchen

So finally after 31 years of non-dishwasher ownership, my Mama is a proud owner of the quietest, most beautifully white dishwasher around. She wouldn't tell me what the kitchen was like, and told me that her walls were painted white....as every other wall in our house is white....except for my bedroom (lavendar) and the t.v. room that Dad and I attacked one summer.....As I walked into the kitchen for the first time, I was AMAZED!!!!!! IT was GORGOUS!!!!!! Like somethiing out of Country Living Magazine....AND ...the BEST PART (besides the dishwasher, lazy susan, and the GIANT FRIDGE) is........SHE PAINTED IT YELLOW!!!!!!! I'm SOOO Happy!!!! Congrats on your kitchen, Mama! You deserve it!

Christmas Pictures

Here are some pictures of Family at Christmas. Hope you enjoy!

What to do when everything about Bangkok Annoys You.....

1. Cry
2. Call home and cry, hoping Mom will just say, "ohhhh, just come on home, we'll take good care of you"....instead she says "ohhh you'll be fine in a couple of days....."
3. Talk really fast in English so taxi driver's can't understand you
4. Eat bread, cheese, and everything NON Thai
5. Get a manicure and a pedicure for $5, and remember that I can't do that in the States.
6. Hang out with my wonderful, amazing Korndoggs and laugh a lot.
7. Look at Wyatt's picture and wonder what he's doing right at that moment.....and plot how to get the "long distance favorite aunty award...."
8. Rack up the phone bills and call home every day
9. Ride my bike around the moo baan and shout crazy things in English, to no one or no body, just the soi dogs.....
10. Remember that I am loved, both near and far.......

Christmas in the good 'ol US of A

So I have been soooo busy re-adjusting to life in Bangkok, it really has been the hardest part of my journey so far. I miss home terribly and I really don't think that two weeks is long enough to get to see everyone I want to see and spend good time with all my family and friends. I have had some major highs and some extreme valleys this last month. My "Grandma Backeast" passed away a week before Christmas, after a long fight with Alzheimer's, and my heart broke that I could not be there for my mom and my grandpa. It made coming home even more special, as I really took time to be with the people I love. I had such a wonderful time at home with Mom and Dad, Erik and Laura and little baby Wyatt....he's really not such a baby any more. His favorite word was "es" meaning "yes". What a cutie! We had so much fun taking naps together! I had such a whirlwind trip, but it sure was great to see all of you!!!! I'm sorry, I feel like I'm rambling....here were some of the highlights and events from the month of December:

December 13th - Lil' Katie came home from the hospital. She is now at about 2.5 kilos (about 5 pounds) and doing really well.

December 15th - Christmas performance....talk about a SHABANG!!!! It was in our performance hall, and I can honestly say I've never seen anything like it! What a production!

Also that night was the All Staff Christmas party. I witnessed the headmaster of our school learning traditional Thai dance. That was pretty funny! We went to a very nice hotel and had a wonderful buffet, we even got some drink tickets! After the party we went salsa dancing, and I stopped to buy some fake crocs (those crazy plastic shoes that look really funny) on the street for $2 because my feet hurt! We danced the night away! So much fun....

We had a couple of other Christmas Parties during that time as well, and report cards were due, classroom Christmas party was on Thursday, December 21. I arranged for my friend Zak to come in as Santa and all the kids were sooo funny! Christmas is celebrated here, but most students don't know the other traditions around Christmas "Miss Katie, What's a stocking?" and few really understand that Christians celebrate it as Jesus' birthday.


December 19th - Had a Chang Noi, Channukah, Kwanza, Everything party at the pool. It was great!
December 20th - Went to the Witch's Tavern and danced until way too late. Very fun!
December 21st - I packed, got a massage and a manicure and pedicure and then hung out with friends. We played Bocci Ball around our moobaan streets and then headed to Hot Chili's, a restaurant, for some drinks and fun.
December 22nd - Left Bangkok at 6am, got to Seattle at 6:50am. Was a very nice flight, not too crowded, I ended up sleeping most of the way.

My Christmas break, I spent as much time as I could just being with my family and friends. I have truly come to realize just how special and amazing being at home is, I miss it! Even if I did have to dress in 20 layers and still be chilled to the bone!

After my whirlwind trip home, I had a very late flight, and got in on Monday morning, with four hours until I had to teach that morning. I was sooo wiped out. I am still trying to cut the jeg lag. The funniest part was that I was super hungry around 9am every day, as that was dinner time in Washington. So everyone else would just have their morning coffee at milkbreak, and I'd order a full meal of phad thai or something and chow down....at 9 in the morning! Funny.



Stay posted.....more to come......like "what to do when everything annoys you" and "the day i almost died" and "Teacher's Day in Thailand" and "Sports Day"

The Day I almost Died….the Comedy

I swear that I could be the next Bridget Jones....things like this really don't happen to "normal" people......

This is how it all began.......I had gotten home pretty late on Saturday night, rather, early morning on Sunday and slept for a bit. Then I woke up and called home and talked to Grammy, Grandpa, Mom, Laura, Wyatt and Dad. By the time I was done it was about 1pm and I was tired. So I decided to take a nap. I didn't have a cell phone because I left my Thai cell phone in the States somewhere, and I didn't unplug my phone cord from the computer when I went to sleep. Little did I know that my friends were trying to track me down. They were worried because we had all gotten home late the night before, and no one actually came back WITH me, Bobbie and Andrew passed me on their motorcycle, but everyone was worried that something had happened to me between the little jaunt between the main street and my condo.

So, during the day, Pascale and the kids came to the condo pool and knocked on my door. As there was no answer, they just went and played in the pool.

Also….during the same time…..Ja came over to give me an extra cell phone that she had, and she ran into Bari who was just coming over to say hey to me. Once they all realized they couldn’t get ahold of me, they started calling around to other people asking others if they have seen me.

After trying my phone every once in a while, and ringing the doorbell, they decided that I might have gone out somewhere, and they wrote me a note….

Then they came back a little while later and saw the note still there and decided to bang on the door. They got the maintainance man to bring up a hammer and they started hammering down my door, to no avail….

During this whole time, I was just sleeping peacefully in my bed, every once in a while dreaming that there was some major construction going on above me, not realizing that my friends were trying to beat down my door with a hammer.

Finally, it was getting late, around 8pm, and Ja had tried to track down my maid to get the spare keys. Pascale had to call my vice principal, Suzie, because my maid is also her maid and Suzie had Malle’s number. So know Suzie knew that I was missing in action. Suzie then called my principal, Jeannie……and they were both on their way to the condo. I’m still oblivious at this point…..So Malle brought the keys but they had ruined the bottom door knob so the keys didn’t work anyway. Meanwhile they had called a locksmith and the locksmith showed up right when Jeannie and Suzie did. Once the door was unlocked and opened just a ways, my metal door bolt was locked from the inside, they realized that I had been inside. My friends said they had a moment of panic because that meant that I WAS inside….Jeannie and Suzie made everyone stay outside while they went inside.

So I am laying in bed, half naked, with just my underwear on…..and I hear someone coming into my bedroom. I was in a VERY deep sleep and I wake up to my PRINCIPAL and VICE PRINCIPAL asking me if I’m okay…..I ask them what is going on and get worried that something happened to Pascale or lil’ Katie or something…..but they tell me that I have a whole load of friends outside that were worried about me when they didn’t hear from me all day.

I reassure them that I am fine, as I cover myself up, I tell them that I was just really tired, and didn’t realize how long I had slept.

They wanted to send everyone away, but there was absolutely no way that I wanted that. I apologized for making them worry and sent them on their way…..

I walked out to the living room, and there was Pascale and Lil’ Katie, Ja, Bari, and Bobbie and Andrew. Pascale told me that about half of the school knew about it, as she had called around wondering if I was with other people…..I couldn’t believe it….

I invited my friends in and they stayed for a while….I was feeling sooooo loved…..and soooo horrible that I made them worry so much. Now I know for sure that I am well cared for and loved here.

I can’t believe things like this happen to me. I am sooo thankful for these new friends of mine. I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!

Grammy

My Grammy just recently made me the best brownies I think I've ever had. She just cut out the recipe from a magazine because she read that the person who made them grew up in Thailand, and that all the ingrediants are available here. So the day before I left, I went over to say good bye, and she had a whole tin of these yummy coconut brownies just waiting for me, along with cow pies, which are pretty much yummy chocolate melted with anything else you want to add to them. I thought that was so very sweet of her to do for me. Then a couple of days later, I called home and I found out that Grammy was in the hospital because of a stroke. I was already having such a hard time re-adjusting, and now I couldn't be home to visit her or anything. I was sooo sad. Sometimes it's just okay to just be sad. So I was. I called her and talked to her on the phone. She sounded a little different, but just as fiesty as ever. People are saying that she is recovering very quickly, but it's hard to not be there right now. So I prayed and I called home and talked to my family. And I talked to my friends here too. And I handed out those brownies and told everyone about my amazing Grammy. They all think she's pretty sweet too.