Saturday, October 4, 2014

Adjusting...

I haven't posted much since get back to the US. 

I think it is a mixture of a few things:

no interesting photos

no different culture stories to tell

not sure how to explain what it is like to come back to your "home culture" to live after 3 years

not sure who would read my blog now

laziness 

poor internet connection

These are the reasons, but hopefully soon I will figure out the direction of the blog. 


Thursday, July 24, 2014

Summer photos....

I haven't disappeared and I still hope to use my blog to update everyone on my life, share stories, and hopefully challenge myself as well as others. 

Of course applying for jobs, washing dishes, and babysitting doesn't make for that exciting of posts....but here are a few fun snapshots of my summer...

we have had some water....making rivers into lakes...

touring a fort on the 4th

the zoo


a farm and some poor sheep....

Chalk Art

More Chalk Art

More and more chalk art

Monday, July 14, 2014

About 10 hours of Strawberries...

Way back in June...we got up early, went to pick about 40 lbs of strawberries and then brought them home...


Some quick cleaning.....


Cutting and smashing...and the sugar :)


Cooking....


The leftovers....


The Strawberry Jam...


Finished....


Sunday, July 6, 2014

The lost Havaiana and other traveling adventures...


This is a very late story about my trip home.... 

I really don't mind 30+ hours of travel....but I feel like I was really losing it by the end of the trip :) 
Actually I think I started to lose it after 5 hours of traveling.

After the close to 5 hours flight to Korea I was going to try to go on a free bus tour. My friends happily walked with me to get more information about the tour. I was told that I did have to go through immigration and then the guy gave me forms to fill out for immigration....He quickly filled out one form and had me fill out the other. He was talking to me the whole time and I was tired, so I started to write my home address as the one we had over 11 years ago! Of course it is where I lived for the first 21 years of my life....but still! 

In between my two one hour tours around the airport my backpack started to break. It was a fairly cheap (aka knock-off) Northface backpack. It was packed pretty heavy with books, etc. I had my flip-flops in both side pockets. Now you must know that I LOVE my Havaianas and my friend got them for me from Brasil after I ran my other pair to nothingness. 

Well, I got all the way to LAX for my last flight which was a full flight so they wanted people to check their bags if possible. I had my two 50lbs already checked and dreamed of not having to carry this backpack through another airport...but it was breaking and my black Havaiana kept falling out. In my sleepy state I decided to check the backpack. 

When I arrived at my final destination I went to baggage claim and grabbed my two suitcase and then my backpack. Unfortunately I only had 3 of my 4 flip flops. I waited to see if it would come, but the belt was empty. I sheepishly went to the Delta man and asked if they could see if they could find my flip flop. He was slightly confused when I said I was missing a Brasilian flip flop, but had just come from Thailand. He talked to the guy who was driving the carts and he said he hadn't seen a flip flop anywhere. The man kindly said that I could go to their website and give a description of it and if they found it they would mail it to me.

I got home and was telling the very sad story of my flip flop to my parents. I was planning on filling out the lost item claim with Delta just in case it would show up. Right before heading to bed I opened my backpack and there was my HAVAIANA! 
To this day I still can't remember if I put it in there knowing that it might fall out or if the baggage people in LAX did it for me. Either way I was so happy to have found my lost flip flop!

I hope you can rejoice with me as well! My lost havaiana was found! 




Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Slowly

I feel like I am slowly getting adjusted to my summer "schedule" which really is no schedule at all! 

I got back to the US less then 3 weeks ago and I have...
been in 4 states,
attended a family reunion,
a funeral,
3 graduation open houses,
a wedding,
many little league games,
helped pick over 40lbs of strawberries,
helped make 12 batches of Strawberry jam,
finished my photo album from the 2012-2013 school year,
spent time with friends and family,
attended continuing ed workshops,
gotten lost driving....


Things I have not done....

cleaned my room,
updated my blog,
figured out what to do with my life,
run for more than 10 minutes at a time,
etc... 

In the meantime....if you would like to learn a little about my family's trip go to my sister's blog- 
The Antics of the Three 22nds and their sisters she has put up two posts so far about our trip!



Monday, June 9, 2014

Finished things in May?!

May Goals?! 
I actually have no idea how I did on most of my May goals... it was a crazy month and I pretty much just tried to survive. I don't think I will write any official goals for June because it is again a crazy month! Maybe July will be more normal.

Fitness
Run/walk for 40k I know I did even more than 40k...just not sure how many....
300 push-ups??? I was close to 300 push-ups and sit-ups but in the midst of packing that paper got thrown away so I am not sure if I actually finished or not...
300 sit-ups???

Professional/Spiritual
 Devos daily
 Read 4 books- I don't think I read for books... but I did read some...just can't remember the names!
 Review Thai vocab/letters daily (5-10 min)- failed this one....

Other
Photo books- work on one of them - nope :)
Newsletter/Prayer letter- I did send an update or two, but no "official" letter...
10 blog posts  
Atlas finished (school related)
Go through room and throw stuff out- got to get pretty far on this- only have about 140lbs I can keep
Library organized and ready for the summer and next year (school related)
Cards for Seniors
Cards to middle schoolers

Social
Roommate "date"
Overnight trip with friends
Skype calls to friends back home (3)
End of the year dinners, breakfasts, etc
Curly Girl night... I am excited to plan this and see who comes :)

I think that I did everything I NEEDED to do or were planned events...but all the extras didn't get done. There is always next month...after I finish traveling, packing and unpacking :)



Saturday, May 31, 2014

packing?

Let's start with this "happy" picture of how I have finished cleaning the library and all my stuff is out of it... Ok, so maybe not happy, but at least I can check one thing off my list.


This is what my room looks like at home... 

I am a great packer. I threw a bunch of things in a suitcase today. I am sure that will help, ha. Actually it is good cause I put things in that I am 100% sure I am taking with me. 



Got somethings to go through still....


How in the world is this going to fit in my two 50lbs suitcases?


Why is there stuff everywhere and why am I writing this blog post instead of cleaning/packing?


Didn't take a picture of the wardrobe full of clothes... I think I have too much stuff, but I am terrible at getting rid of stuff. 

Alright off to packing/sorting/cleaning/throwing -3 years of my life.