Krabi, Thailand

We flew down to Krabi for the first part of our Thailand islands adventure.  Krabi is insane. You feel like you just stepped into the page for the month of May on one of those cheesy free calendars. Turns out those places really do exist.  First on the to do list after traveling almost 30 hours was mango sticky rice and a thai massage (for a few dollars).  Both were the best choices. 

This cutey below kept us entertained while we waited for our massage. Her mom worked at the store and she just kind of threw her at us when we walked in so......massage in exchange for babysitting? We didn't mind though. When a handful of us walked in I think we were more than they normally get because she immediately made some phone calls and told us to wait. After a bit some girls walked in to give us massages. Maybe she just called some friends to help out? It was good anyways. 

We went to Railay beach which is the place that calendars are made of that I mentioned before. Seriously you can't make these pictures up. Its a really tiny place so we just laid on the beach, swam in the really warm ocean, drank yummy smoothies and then walked around.

So you can't go far without meeting a monkey in Thailand islands. 

The next day we decided to do the Tiger Cave Temple hike which was supposed to have a cool buddha and an incredible view of Krabi. I had researched it and heard it was pretty hot and sweaty but I hike a ton so I kinda figured it would be a breeze...

Yeah so the stairs looked like that. 1260 super steep stairs straight up the mountain!  We were dying. Think about doing the stair stepper in a sauna and that's basically the hike. We were dripping in sweat. It was like okay let's walk 50 stairs and then stop and take another break. And that was pushing it. Leslie even threw up twice when we had about 100 steps to go.  But once we made it to the top...wowza. It was worth it. 

Again monkeys were running the place.

There...proof of the 1260 steps! 

In Krabi we found a restaurant that we fell totally in love with. They had both Thai food and American and were open all day long so of course we ate there every single meal while in Krabi. Don't regret that decision even a bit. 

We went there early for breakfast just after they opened and the cook pretty much rolled out of bed and whipped up our breakfast in her pjs. Cutest.

The owner's name was Kitty and she spoke some English so after we kept showing up meal after meal she started talking to us. She was the best part about going there. The restaurant was just across the street from our hostel so we'd be walking by and if she saw us she'd ask if we were coming in later for food. Of course we were. You know we will Kitty.

On our last meal we told her we were leaving and she came out with a gift for all of us. They were the sweetest little money bags.  The look on her face when she gave them to us was priceless...she was so happy. So glad I snapped this shot because it was the best moment. I think she liked us as much as we liked them.

Krabi you were beautiful....but our next stop Koh Lanta was my favorite. I'll give you photo overload of that island tomorrow!

Canyon Drive

I took a drive through the canyon last weekend and it was exactly needed. Windows down, cool air, music blaring. The colors are already turning showing off my most favorite time of year. There's something about the outdoors that gets my head on straight. And a good song too. That does the trick.

Priest Lake

The traditional family reunion at Priest Lake, Idaho was a success. Lots of sun, sailing, cutie babies, kayaks, food, and way too short as usual. Still is my favorite place in the world. Somehow I didn't get a picture of you Mom...how did that happen?

Anna

Introducing my newest little niece.  She gave us a bit of a scare from the start so having a photo like this of her is something to really be grateful for. To state the obvious, life is precious. 

And I want one of my own. Someday. Not today. But I understand why parents blow up their feed with pictures of baby.  Cause how could you not?

Back again.

I've been gone SO SO long.  I got frustrated with the blogging thing and lost my creativity.  Its funny how I stopped feeling creative, but never stopped wanting to be creative.  I just feel...stuck.  I haven't been making time to do creative things.  Winter blues I suppose...that happens though right? We lose ourselves.  But here I am, desiring to be better, to do better, to be creative.  I went to the bookstore to splurge and buy the book Creative Block (which I love btw!) and the guy working asked me if I was an artist.  A million thoughts ran through my head like, "Well I want to be an artist" or "I just like artsy things" but instead I replied, "Yes, I am."  Wow! That may seem a little silly but it was so nerve racking to say out loud that I'm an artist. It felt good though.  And no matter how much I have fought against it, I'm just not happy not being an artist.  Its just who I am.

I've gone back and forth a million ways about what to blog about.  That's what I do though...I get these ideas and want to switch completely what I'm doing and start over.  I've been thinking lately about just documenting things that inspire me.  I don't really want to think about how many followers I can get, how to get pinned on Pinterest, or how to create an online presence. All good things, but I need this to be something that I enjoy.  And I need to nurture my small inner artist which I've neglected so much.

First up is music. I've posted videos before and I want to keep this up. Music is forever going to be so inspiring for me.  A good song can turn my mood around 100%. Music is the quickest way to awake my soul when I'd rather be laying in bed watching the Office for the millionth time.  This song by Brooke Waggoner has been on repeat for the last 15 minutes.  Love.

fav vids

Since I still can't upload any photos, you're getting videos.  Maybe that's a little better anyways?  Here's a little semester in review of a few of my favs.

In this video there was a new student that came to class.  He didn't speak any English because he was new but he was the cutest little boy with a constant smile on his face.  He left early with his mom and the kids were really concerned for him because if you're not speaking English in class, then you're not getting a token when you speak, and then if you don't have tokens to use at "store"...then you're not going to get a prize at the end of class.  If you don't have lots of tokens then you can't save for a big really cool prize.  So the kids didn't know this new boy's name, just that he smiled a lot and had no tokens.  Thus.....concern for happy boy came to be:


If you ever wondered how to play red light green light, well Ignas is here to explain it to you:


Stevie taught the kids about states like Mississippi and Indianapolis......what?


And again....Ignas explaining how to play another game.  Not quite sure which game he's trying to get everyone to play though:


In other news, yesterday my meals prepared for me were noodle soup, fried hash brown potatoes and squishy potatoes for lunch and potato pancakes with pretzle things for dinner.  I'm basically going to binge on vegetables and salads when I get home.

happy december

I'm a bit frustrated over here because blogger is telling me that I can't add photos because I ran out of space....
Instead of figuring that one out I might just post videos.  I kinda wish that problem would just fix itself.  Or that someone will fix it for me.  Here's hoping.
Christmas feels a little different for me this year. I haven't been home for months and our little apartment has zero christmas decorations. We've been teaching the kids christmas songs at school (hearing them randomly start solo singing what they think the words are to the right tune makes my heart light up).  Being away from home has forced my focus to be on the right sort of things this year though.   I could care less what i get for christmas (santa can still come though, i wouldn't turn that down).  Maybe i'm finally a grown up?  Maybe its because I've been sick this past month and have been in bed quite a bit which made for a lot too much "me time".  But the things that are getting me excited this season are my relationships with others.  The best part of my week was little Danielle coming in before school started and sitting on my lap and rubbing her little fingers over my fingernails.  Or Stevie laying her head on my lap and giving her a massage.  Or today, the cutest old lady at the bus stop looked me in the eyes and smiled at me.  Smiled at me!  NO one here in Lithuania does that.  Eye contact and smiles are just a foreign concept.  That little 3 seconds of a moment just made me so happy.  Touch and being close to others is all I want for christmas this year.  I want to be around my family.  I want to hear Isla's little voice saying hi, aunt jenni (hopefully that phase isn't done yet).  I want a hug from my mom.  I want to talk to my sister.
I want my relationships to be better whether it be with strangers, acquaintances or my loved ones.  I want to make someone's day a little brighter.
Be kinder.  Be gentle.  Be selfless.

Have yourself a merry christmas season everyone - december has arrived!

at the school

I've been sick this week so I've stayed home from school and kinda started missing the kids. Maybe I'm crazy but they're the best.  I miss their hugs and the funny things they say.  I was looking at some of my videos and picked out a couple of my favs for you.

They love them some "Call me maybe".  

Z was pouting in the corner because he thought he didn't have friends......but boy was he wrong.

and then we lost control...

Most days at school I wonder why the kids haven't figured out yet how easy it would be to just full out mutiny.  Band together and take us down.  I mean....3 teachers vs almost 16 students.  They could have us. Easy.  They could just storm that prizes box and take what they want.  But somehow, we're still in control.  Except there's this one class of kids.....I think they ALMOST have it figured out that they've got some wiggle room in how much we can take from them.  Some days, we just don't have the power.  That's pretty much how this day went and instead of getting frustrated, me and Stevie just laughed, stood back, let it happen, and took some pics to document the craziness that is this group of kids.  And somehow I still love em.

getting mail

I got a package in the mail from the best mother in world, fully loaded with chocolate, brownies and macaroni and cheese.  Yay!  It was given to me while I was at school and I couldn't resist opening it so....I had share some of my loot since I opened it in front of everyone. Anytime we give the students candy they are stoked. But...their eyes got pretty big when I said candy from AMERICA.  It's big stuff you know?  It was a happy day.  Thanks mom!!