Officially 3 Months!

***disclaimer....I originally typed this post while at school where I was unable to upload my pictures...so here I am at home uploading pictures...which is making me think of things i left out or didn't mention at all...so I promise this was a nicely composed post...but now it is turning into a hodge podge of random information!! :) but at least i finally posted!... :) 

WOW! This post is LONG overdue! Soo much has been going on and I have been extremely busy!!! 

Today officially marks THREE MONTHS in Thailand! This completely blows my mind!! 3 months has flown by...I honestly feel like I have been here for AT LEAST 6 months...it is crazy how much/how fast you can adapt to new surroundings. My house is definitely starting to feel like home! We even hung a hammock on our front porch! :) It has made for some wonderful afternoon napping! :) 

Some of the foreign teachers! 

some Thai and Foreign teachers :) 

In Thailand, Father's Day is actually celebrated on the King's Birthday which is on December 5. So the kids made Father's Day cards for their dads! :) I have some great artist in my class! :) 

Happy Fappy Day??.. :)  oops! :) 

Thank you Kevin for the amazing reminder of home...

Missing TacoLu tons...but at least now I have 

a koozie to show off while here!  

My kids working in pairs on a subtraction activity! 

Ashley and I headed to Bangkok for a spur of the moment weekend trip. :)  

We focused on adjectives a lot in English the past few weeks. We made adjective rainbows (describing themselves) and the kids LOVED them!...and I loved how bright and cheerful they made our classroom!  

So I was not going to post about this little incident but my mom insisted...and I guess the least I could do is listen to my mother who is millions of miles away! :) 

So picture this...I just got out of school (wearing a nice shirt, and a black pencil skirt...for the guys that may not know a pencil skirt is pretty fitted)...put my helmet on and get on my motorbike... Ashley and I buy a rotisserie chicken every Monday and then cook vegetables throughout the week for dinners...so I was stopping at the market on my way out of school to grab the chicken, no big deal. 

I pull up to the market (right in front of the chicken lady), so I don't bother taking my helmet off as I will be out of there in a matter of minutes...I get the chicken, give her my money and take the change that she was giving me...Of course I can't stop for 2 seconds to put my money back in my purse before I take off walking...I have to do everything at the same time...So here I am leaving the chicken lady with the chicken in one hand and my wallet and money in the other...walk, walk, walk, boom...I trip over something...maybe my own feet, who knows...and I go flyingggg! Well seeing that both of my hands are full I clearly caught myself with my knees! Here goes Teacher Lauren, flying through the air with money and a chicken, in a black pencil skirt, with a helmet on!

End result...two extremely bruised knees, 2 big ole scrapes, and one embarrassed teacher! 

(hope you're happy mom) :) 

my little right hand munchkin! 

such a great helper, sweet personality, and wonderful student! 

My kids are absolutely amazing...Each day I learn more and more from them and about them! They are the sweetest group of kids and are so smart! :D  They love to learn and keep me on my toes! 

School has been going great! I am so proud of how my kids are doing. I just finished giving them midterms last week....YES...MIDTERMS...to first graders....

This was something that was odd to me but the students and parents are used to it...I had to give my kids 8 midterms...4 written and 4 oral (english, math, science, and health). It was a busy week of testing but I am very happy with all of my munchkins! :) 

Christmas came and went...it didn't really feel like Christmas here...The Thais celebrate Christmas in the sense that they love the decorations and "Santa", etc...

There is this sign in the common area of our school...it changes every couple of weeks...prior to this it said Nice, and then had the definition and Thai script...So for Christmas they changed it to this...It is kind of humorous to me because this is their definition of Christmas. :) 

The parents decorated our classroom for Christmas/New Years! 

Teacher Nick and his P4 students came around and caroled to all of the classes! 

Christmas morning was a normal day of teaching, but the afternoon was filled with lots of food and fun! Each class did their own activity/party in the afternoon! My kids made Santas out of paper plates, red paper, and cotton balls! They had a blast and they were cute decorations that hung in our classroom! (In the background of a few of these pictures!)

My parents are amazing!! They did ALL of the decorating and supplied a TON of fun!! The spread was absolutely amazing! So much delicious food! 

The foreign teachers (about 10 of us) got together for dinner and celebrated Christmas. We all brought food/drink and had an evening of fun! :) 

The big celebration here is for New Years. The Thais go all out with their decorating and festivities. Although we had to work on Christmas, we did get a short vacation for New Years. We were on break from the 28th - 1st. 

Ashley and I took a little vacation to Hua Hin. Hua Hin is a super cute little beach town! :) I can't explain how amazing it was to spend 5 days at the beach! This definitely made me miss home and the ocean so much!!! Ashley and I woke up early every morning, got breakfast and headed out to the beach! We spent every second we could in the sun! We booked a hotel super last minute and got a great deal...We were worried about the cleanliness, etc...but we lucked out! The hotel was awesome! We had a huge room, the staff was great, and we were a 2 minute walk to the beach! 

We met some really nice people while we were there and enjoyed the sun and fun to the fullest extent. We celebrated NYE in Hua Hin... There was a lot going on in this town, but Ashley and I decided to take it easy...we went to dinner at this amazing Indian restaurant and then went down to the beach for drinks and fireworks! There was live music until midnight and then amazing firework show on the beach! :) It was such a great evening! 

a little VW van bar :) so cute! 

Once we got home to Saraburi from our little vaca, we took a motorbike taxi to get back home...(by this point in time my knees have finally heeled!) The taxi driver started to take off before I was completely on the bike resulting in me instinctively grabbing the bike with my legs as much as I could...

...and then this happened...

...literally falling apart at this point! 

Grrrr, I was soo annoyed with this guy! 

I got back to school after vacation and had this waiting for me...

best mom ever! 

Look at this amazing new water bottle! :) 

Oh My Goodness!

I found 8 little puppies right around the corner from my house! I finally got them to come over to the fence so I could pet them! Now I think they are just obsessed with me as I am them! I stop and check on them every morning and afternoon! Today I took some chicken to them after school and fed it to the puppies and the momma! :) Anddd I bought dog treats for all of them! :) Gotta make sure they are getting some lovin! 

One of the holidays celebrated in Thailand is called Children's Day. It was really neat and something different that I'd never seen before...There were no classes the first half of the day. The staff was serving breakfast to all of the students, teachers and parents upon arrival to school. That was really neat and delicious! Then each student (in the whole entire school) brings in a wrapped present...the presents get sorted and numbered by parent volunteers...each child then picks a number and retrieves that number present! This was a big operation but the parent volunteers did an amazing job keeping everything organization and under control! After all of the students received their presents they get to participate in many different games and activities.

That evening there was a party for all of the staff. At this party there would be different performances and events....Some how the foreign teachers got roped into doing a dance to a J.Lo song. We practiced all week during lunch and pulled off a great performance Friday night! :) There is a video floating around facebook that I will try and post here later! Here are some pictures from that evening! 

The other evening I hear Ashley pull up to the house and right after I hear her yell inside...it scared me for a second because I didn't hear what she said...she yelled up again and said, "Lauren, quick!!! Come out here!! There is an elephant outside!!!"

Umm, what!?? Yepp...exactly what it sounded like...

Although he was super cute...it was super sad...The guys walk him around town and try and get people to buy food from them to feed him... :/ 

In science we were working on day and night, etc...here the munchkins are drawing pictures to show what they do/see during the day and what they do/see at night! If you actually look at some of their papers you can see how awesome they are! 

I think that is about it for now but I will be posting more soon!

I can't tell everyone enough how much ALL of the LOVE and SUPPORT means to me!! 

I appreciate each and everyone of you that has followed my blog and kept me in your thoughts and prayers over the last 3 months. I am so blessed with such amazing people in my life and miss you all! :) 

Lots of Love!!

LD <3