Class Party

Tuesday night was our end of the quarter party with my night class. Ryan came and we had a lot of fun. We did a white elephant gift exchange which was quite entertaining because there were many great gifts that kept getting stolen back and forth. I put a limit that a gift could not be stolen more than twice. Some students brought family, as you can see. The kids are not my students. : ) Students in my evening class are from Peru, Ukraine, Belarus, Mexico, Thailand, China, and South Korea.

These are some shots of opening gifts during the game.

Tis the Season!

It's the busy Christmas season. Yesterday (Monday) was our end of the quarter party with my day class. We had food like mole, shrimp yakisoba, spring rolls, fish tacos (that's what I brought), and flan. It was great! We also had a white elephant gift exchange. In the back row, far right, is another teacher. My day class is small. The night class is bigger and our party is tonight. I plan to put up some pictures of that later on.

Countries represented are: U.S. (that'd be the teachers), Mexico, Japan, Bolivia, and China. There is a Ukrainian student also (not pictured). It's fun to have a class of all women and to learn about each other's countries. Notice that I (at 5'2") am slouching so as not to look too tall!! That never happens for me. I was wearing about 2" heeled boots, but so were others. It's nice having students from "shorter stature" countries so I don't always feel like a dwarf in a group!

From Saturday until Tuesday I have/had four different parties. On Saturday night, we went to the house of the couple that's leading the marriage Sunday School that we attend. We brought along the two guys from Hong Kong that Ryan is conversation partners with. They really enjoyed it, and so did we.

On Sunday was the Ladies Christmas party at our church. My mom came and also two of my students. Here is a picture of my mom and me. Some of the pictures didn't come out well. The flash made the background too dark, but it also wasn't very good without it. : /

These are two of my students. One if from Mexico and the other is from Thailand. I don't think I need to identify which one is which. : ) We made snowman ornaments.

To save on the cost of tickets, ladies volunteered to decorate tables. Here is mine. They had told me that all cups, plates, and plastic ware would be provided, so that's why you don't see that. It's nothing fancy, but at least I got to use the chargers that we got for a wedding present!

I took shots of some of the more beautifully decorated tables.

This is the huge table of desserts that we had. I was thankful for the person who missed the "bring a dessert" note and brought two huge veggie trays!! ; )

Thanksgiving Weekend

On Thanksgiving, we met my grandmother for lunch at 11am at her nursing home. She was thrilled that we would come and have lunch with her that day. My mom is in Texas visiting my brother, Tommy, who is going to Texas A&M. Ryan's mom is in Wyoming. After visiting with my grandmother, we went south of Seattle to have another meal with Ryan's extended family. There were around 20+ people there. We had a nice time seeing them as we don't get to see them very often.


The day after Thanksgiving, Lighthouse Mission Ministries (a Christian homeless and recovery shelter) in Bellingham was having their community meal. Ryan and I were the dishwashers for the event. There were easily 500 people that came in between 11:30 and 2pm. Thankfully they used plastic ware and styrofoam (though that part's bad for the environment!). We were washing things like the pots and pans used for cooking and the serving trays that were getting messy, etc.

This is the gym where the meal was served.

Today we went to see the play "Bye, Bye Birdie". My former student works in the box office and had informed me that today's 2pm show was "buy your tickets for whatever you have". I had about $1.40 in cash on me so I got two tickets for that price! It was mostly a good show except for a few innuendos that could have been left out. We were hoping that a 1960's play would have been devoid of those things, but nope.

Now we're back home and back at the homework for the rest of the weekend.

Babies, Dancing, and Roses

On Saturday I finally had a social outing! Since we had Monday off for Veteran's Day, I was able to get out from under the books a bit! My friend Heather was having a baby shower for her 2nd son, baby number four. Whoever made the lunch was definitely a chef. Showers are always fun to get together and celebrate a new baby coming soon!

I enjoyed hearing birth stories and like to compare notes now to see who I'd maybe want for a midwife and whether to 'go natural' or epidural.

This is usually how we look. Here's Ryan studying at home, and then the next pic he's studying at a local coffee shop. I'm there studying right along with him. At least we are at the same place in life. We decided that if I thought I might want to get another degree, now was the time. It's working out well to be doing the same thing together.


These were a nice surprise from my husband. : D He knows that I love two-toned roses. These were beautiful because of their speckles and that the colored part was on the inside of the rose.


Last Saturday night we tried Argentine Tango for the first time. I enjoyed it more than Ryan, but he still had a good time. I pick up dancing quicker as I've danced a lot of my life. Ryan danced a few rounds and then took a break while I danced with the mostly gray-haired population there. I hope we'll go again sometime, but I still like swing dancing more (which I haven't done in a long time).

Well...it's a lot of the same news on this end at the moment! : ) Lots of homework and going to work. This past weekend Ryan had his drill weekend for the Navy reserves. We were able to meet up with some good friends on Friday night for dinner at their place, which was a joy as we hadn't seen them in awhile and I'd been craving some socializing! On Sat., my mom and I went to La Conner for a couple of hours to explore their Arts Alive event. We had a nice time walking around and exploring the shops and artwork there.

I've been subbing A LOT as the teacher who had the medical emergency with her son is not able to return this quarter. Therefore, a few of us have to cover her classes, which is more than I bargained for while doing my masters! I was just asked again today to sub for another that is sick. Phew! Ryan and I are both looking forward to December for a break in work and classes!!

This time last year Ryan was deployed to the Mid-East. As I'm driving around and looking at the changing leaves, I remember that he didn't get to see this change happening last year. I would mail him colorful leaves so that he could have "some fall" in the desert. I'm so grateful to have him home!!

I worked on Halloween but decided to wear my flamenco outfit from Spain to work. Since I haven't taken many pictures lately, I thought I'd reminisce with a few from when we lived in Spain and that way I can also share my flamenco dress. The dress was given to me by a lady in my dance class. It had been her daughter's. Of course girls/women there have to get a new dress every year!

While we were there, I was taking a Sevillana dance class. It's similar to flamenco, but more folk dance. Every year is a large horse fair where people dance this Sevillana in hundreds of open-air rooms/restaurants. My mom came for a visit during that time and had her birthday there.