Lefse Making

Lefse making in Thailand for the 2nd year in a row! Enjoy the photos and I hope you all have some lefse this Christmas :) We spent about 7-8 hours over two days making it and made around 200.

This is for you, mom! I was the one that knew how to use an
Oster :) 

Trying to transfer the lefse with the special lefse stick....

Flour was everywhere...

My camera doesn't take the best photos...but this is the group
that made the lefse this year...there were others who would
come for short times :)

Christmas in the Library

We had fun decorating for Christmas in the library! 

Take a peek.....

No real snow...so this will have to do....

Outside bulletin board- teachers' favorite Christmas books

New nativity scene made by a co-worker

We had an open house to unveil the nativity scene for the 1st time....

I think that we had about 150 people in the library at once! 

It was not a quiet library (except during the prayer :) 

Signs Take 2

More fun signs from me to you!

No loud bangs outside my window...of course the weeds are over taking the sign...

Couldn't get this turned the right way...but you understand the message right?!?!

Hmmm I guess we should be careful....

Some people from Chick-fil-A came to our school...and we added
our mascot to their sign....Go Tigers!

Bowling in Thailand

Bowling in Thailand:

We got three games for probably around 3 dollars (including shoes), 

but we had to continually reset our lane, etc. This made our games last a lot longer than expected, 

so we started "speed bowling." We just took turns the whole time and no one paid any attention to names, etc. I think we got some of our best scores that round!

 For some reason I have very long legs and arms when bowling :) 

 All in all bowling in Thailand is pretty much the same as bowling in the US.

Soccer- Five Nations Tournament

Soccer took up most of my October break....this coming from the girl who didn't even consider soccer a "true" sport 6 years ago. Then I moved to Brasil for two years and you pretty much have to love soccer to live there :) And I have grown to love the sport- it does take great skill and is fun to watch. 

The other reason I wanted to watch soccer all break was because Nate is a senior and this will be the last year to watch him play. Nate is the oldest of the family I knew in Brasil and they are like a second family to me. Right when I got here last year, he requested that I stay two years so I could see him graduate. I consider it my job to make sure he has an "Aunt" in the stands as much as possible! Last year, he was embarrassed when I cheered, but he has grown to truly enjoy it! haha

Number 4 was staying with Nate's family during the tournament and since his family couldn't be there to cheer him on we made a sign for him. I think my cheering helped because he was the 3rd highest scorer for the team and he didn't even start any of the games! I would like to say that I made him a household name in the stands- everyone asked who number 4 was the first game, but by the last one they were all cheering with me!

My wonderful friend who helped me make the signs and Nate's parents- Gina and Andy. He was a coach this year and as you can tell very happy about their win....or maybe just happy to be in the photo?

Crazy fans!

Half Time Show- 

One of the coach's sons made a G, I, S and brought paper clips so we could clip them to our shirts. You can't really see the letters...but we did a have an amazing cheer for game 3! He also worked hard and made a sign for every player with their names on them. 

The teams "wai" the refs, coaches, and fans for both teams after every game.

Praying after winning the championship game

I was the head cheerleading coach.... kids would check with me before they ran up and down the sidelines with signs. Of course it was better to have them run up and down with signs cause they are so much cuter than I am! In fact the people trying to sell food jumped on this as a great advertising tactic and sent kids out with signs about the food!

Learning Tai...Karla's way...

Here I am in the second country I have lived in and trying to learn another language

 (1st two attempts didn't go so well...Spanish and Portuguese)...

3rd times a charm right!?!?!

the girl who could barely learn English...

the girl with the memory and speech troubles as a kid

the one who is tone deaf, but the blessing is a true talent of singing off key!

Yes, I am that girl and now I am trying to learn a tonal language....

high tone, low tone, falling tone, rising tone, mid tone...

can't you hear it...

it wasn't falling- it was rising...

does it matter?

well, do you want a tiger or shirt at the market---

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH

I have to make connections...

something I can relate to...

something that fits with what I know...

I need to make it a game...

 see it...

 hear it....

say it...

So here is your first tai lesson from me :) 

I can't read tai so I am learning tai phonetically...

pii (falling tone) saao (rising tone)= older sister

it is pronounced "pee sow"

it took me awhile to stop laughing every time I called my sisters "sow"

muu (with lines through the uu)= pork

it is pronounced "moo"

ok so I just think cows say "moo" but it really means pork (pig)

sua (with line through u and rising tone)= tiger

sua (with line through u and falling tone) = shirt

just remember that if you saw a tiger you would probably raise your voice and end with an aaaahhhhhh

aa chiip (falling tone)= occupation

sounds just like "a sheep" 

at least it sounds like that to me :)

bplaa= fish

sounds like "blah" and I agree I don't really like eating fish


Hope you learned something today by reading "learn tai-Karla's way"
Stay toned for another lesson in a month or two :)

My view of my sister's wedding....

Many of you know that my sister got married at the beginning of Oct. I will just leave it at the "beginning of Oct" because according to me she got married the 7th but to her and the rest of my family it was the 6th :)

She was nice enough to have an evening wedding so that I could attend in the morning and not in middle of the night-I got up at 5:40am and biked to my friend Gina's house, so that I could watch the wedding with someone! We hooked up my computer to her TV and sat back on beanbags to watch the wedding! I bet none of you have ever sat on a beanbag during a wedding...

Unfortunately they couldn't hear me too well (actually they might have thought that was a good thing), but I could see and hear them just fine! I also could hear my family in MN. The wedding took place in Guatemala, so they had two computers- one to skype with Thailand and one to skype with Minnesota. 

2 continents, 

3 time zones,

 2 hemispheres, 

3 countries, 

2 languages 

(even though I was in Thailand I spoke English to them). 

Getting ready to watch the wedding....

Ok so this isn't "my view" but here we are with the
 bride and groom on the other side of the world!

My sister and I...while waiting for the pastor....

The TV, computer and me :)

They missed the memo to look at the camera!

Praying- Thai style

See us in the corner?!?!

So happy....

Some of my favorite parts were listening to my dad pray for Fernando and Erica and my nephews singing "Here comes the Bride" at the top of their lungs. To think that they were in MN and I was skyping with someone in Guatemala is pretty cool. Oh technology :)

Package from America....

Yeah for Jenni! She wins the prize for the first package from the states this school year:) 

hmmm guess I need to find a prize!

Jenni is in the middle...Heather is pretty cool too....

It is extra impressive cause it is seasonal and it arrived before the season was over!!!
Actually it arrived at the perfect time...

It kind of looked like a rat started eating the twizzlers...but the bag was completed sealed...
so I guess something heavy just fell on top of it....they tasted just fine :)

There was a happy note in the package from Kristel....

Thanks friends!

Elementary Staff Retreat-Kayaking!

Kayaking is such fun....

 Why not stand up and kayak?!?

Yes- it was fun!

Elementary/SND Staff Retreat Take 1

At the beginning of September we had an elementary and special needs staff retreat (aka work retreat!). Even though we were in meetings most of the time we still managed to have lots of fun! It was fun to get to know each other better, etc.

The cute pig towel on my bed....

The gluten free girls had table full of gluten free food!

Getting in birthday order without talking...

More games...

My roommate loves me:)

Cup stacking at it's finest!

This was actually taken during our Social Studies Standards meeting!
We really did work hard...maybe a little too hard!

Sharing action steps for helping a student

Worshiping God together

SND and Elementary Staff

Elementary Staff 

1st quarter is already finished and parent-teacher conferences are this week!