Thailand Sneak Peak!

I feel like summer is flying by and it does not have my permission to do so! My mom's family got together for a family reunion at Myrtle Beach, which was awesome. It took us three family photos to get everyone in a picture...and still there is not one picture that captures all of us at one time! haha It was a great time hanging out, eating, tanning, and finding lots of weird critters in the ocean!


I finally got my laptop back today...even though it isn't fixed yet....thank you Bangladesh for doing quite a number on my laptop! and I was feeling inspired to look through the hundreds of photos I took in Thailand and Malaysia in May! I thought I'd start by posting a few of my favorites that stuck out as I sorted through photos today.

Young girl in one of the long-neck villages

 at a temple in Bangkok

 Koh Tao!

 Chiang Mai temple (don't ask which one....we went to a million!)

I don't know why but I really loved these hot water kettles at our breakfast on our overnight hike to a hilltop tribal village outside of Chiang Mai

So This Is Summer...

Well, I had the ideas for a great blog in my head earlier today but now I'm just flat out exhausted...blame jetlag or the fact that I worked out for the first time in a loooong time or the fact that I was totally defeated while shopping in town today...

Here's how my day shaped up
7am -- Day 1 of the couch to 5k run program! Loving the app! It tells you when to do what...week 1 = 20 minute run/walk intervals with a 5 min warm up/cool down. I don't know if my early wake ups can be attributed to jetlag or not but at least the run was a lot cooler at 7am! Let's just say that now that it's the end of the day my legs are pretty tired! Hopefully I can keep up the motivation and commitment to finish the 9-week training program!

Spent the morning shopping in town for craft supplies for a few projects for my room....I haven't lived at home since high school and I thought I'd spruce up my room a little - including massive, massive cleaning/organizing! *Note: my room has been a dumping zone for the past 8 years...after college, after Germany, and now mid Bangladesh!* Perhaps I'll post a few before/after photos when my craft projects start to look a little more promising (today was a fail on craft shopping....so looks like I need a bigger crafts store!) and when I'm feeling like I will have enough energy to muster through the piles and tupperware boxes in my room. Oh! Let me tell you about the wonders of the GPS....in brief, why can't it just say "turn right now [you idiot]" haha - seriously - it always seems to be one step behind me and I'm staring at street signs and wondering "Is it this road or the next?" maybe I'm the only one with this problem but I doubt it...."recalculating" ahhhhh

"Installed" mom's new baby....and her and dad's evening entertainment.....pool cleaning robot. He was a little crazy if you ask me - I had to keep pushing it under water because it would spin its wheels and come up to the surface and climb the walls of the pool....of course it worked perfectly when mom came home and wanted to see it do it's thing. Go figure. Well, hopefully it keeps working (it did a great job cleaning the parts it did roll over) so I don't have to have my old job of pool cleaner back! Spent the afternoon supervising the robot, tanning, and reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The evening was spent making homemade banana ice cream and mapping out my day for tomorrow....eye appointment in Richmond so I'm going to try to do some shopping before the apt!

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer and had a wonderful Monday :)

HOME

Well, after a month of traveling around Malaysia and Thailand and making the long journey (30 hours) home I am finally here!! I was greeted with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and hugs and kisses. Since home I've been doing the usual hunt for new things...so far I've discovered the new fridge (kinda obvious....the old one was well, old, and white...the new one - spiffy and black! It even beeps at me when I stand staring into the fridge for too long...oops!), new dishwasher, I'm thinking there's a new grill (not sure if it's new or if I've just been away for too long to really remember what was here before), new dishes, new silverware, mom's newest and first quilt, and I'm sure a few other things I still haven't discovered.

Much to my surprise the new fridge was actually filled with food! Usually the fridge is bare-boned empty when I get home. Thank goodness it was full because I'm not sure if I'm ready to conquer the roads where people don't honk, drive on the right side of the road from the left side of their car, and don't swerve in and out of traffic. hehe what will I ever do without all the chaos?! Anyway, thank goodness there was cheddar cheese in the fridge! I have been devouring the cheese ever since I woke up this morning (bright and early at 7am!) I'm guessing I'll crash early this afternoon considering I went for 40+ hours on minimal sleep/airplane napping! The fridge also happened to have a container with one of my fave mom dishes -- 3 bean casserole :) yumm

Lucky for mom I was too tired when we got home last night at 11:30pm to empty my suitcase and show her all of my latest purchases including several gifts for her. Yes, usually this is my ritual that as soon as I walk in the door I start emptying the contents of my suitcase! Last night I was so tired I didn't even want to shower but forced myself based on the sheer fact that I was disgusting after traveling from Bangladesh to Abu Dhabi to JFK to IAD to home....in 30 hours...

Well, I'm going to get back to enjoying the TV (there's so much going on!! funny how facinating the TV can be after not watching tv for a year!) and my pictures from Thailand and Malaysia, which I will post soon enough :)

Send me a message, email me, call me, etc. if you want to get together this summer while I'm home :) xoxo