Harvest Party & Trivia Night

On Friday, Chaney [the other grade 1 teacher] and I let the kids experience a good old harvest party! Halloween isn't "celebrated" here, which we were fine with. . .but we wanted the opportunity to teach the kids about seasons, harvest time, and that in some places of the world, leaves change color! It really was a new concept for most of them! They learned all about the life cycle of a pumpkin for the past few weeks, so it was fun to celebrate by making/eating pumpkin goodies [pumpkin bread and pumpkin cookies] ! The also got to have their own pumpkin to take home [many had never seen one before] and we played many learning related games so they could win candy :)
It was such a crazy and fun day in grade 1! 

Here's a little picture recap of our day!

making bingo cards!

playing bingo for candy!

many kids had never seen a pumpkin lit up. we made a happy face :)

They had so much fun drawing on their own individual pumpkins!

one of the mom's made pumpkin cookies!

decorated desks and candy bags

I had to have some decoration too!

another mom carved a pumpkin so they could watch. . .

. . .and then get to feel the guts and seeds

lovin' the bright colors!

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After school, Chris, Erik, Amanda and I headed out to Karawaci [maybe our equivalent of going to Portalnd. . .but instead of city, we see green grass :) ]. We got dressed up and 'stached up for the occassion -- a fundraiser trivia night! After the event was over, Chris and I stayed the night with another couple from Karawaci [Ben and Becky, the couple in the middle] and then played football the next day. . .great way to spend a weekend!

our incredibly smart table

Safe to say they enjoyed themselves. . .

From Salem with Love

Yesterday Matt and Janine arrived in Jakarta and we had a nice lunch with them and our other Corban teacher friends here. It was so great to see some familiar faces, and share our experiences with them. The more we tell them, the more they can encourage other Corban grads to come on over! 

With them, they brought a bag full of goodies, packed with love by our parents and siblings :) Oh happy day to us! We got emotional just opening the bag and seeing things written in handwriting we recognized, from notepads that were from our home countertops. Might sound kinda silly and sappy, but seriously. . .it was the best! The one unfortunate thing, was that the bread crumb container [yes, I asked for bread crumbs!] had popped open inside and covered everything! At least it wasn't a liquid spill, and I salvaged most of them :)

Inside the bag, there were several things that we'd asked for, and other surprises that just made our day! We were like little kids on Christmas morning! 

I thought it would be too hot here for these. . .
 but I've missed having something cozy to slip into after being on my feet all day!

Seahawk shirts, and a USA jersey to rep team America at futsal!

Great gifts from Justin and Allison! Justin, you know Chris too well! And Allison, I can't wait to try out some new recipes! :) We love you both!

So happy to have anything festive! The tea lights are great for a little holiday smell, and nothing better than a country Christmas! Too bad my husband is such a stickler and wont allow Christmas music 'til after Thanksgiving. I thought being in Indo might change his mind. . .nope! What a stinker!

YUM! Chris is stingy with his Reese's and jerky though. . .

some new reading material for each of us

face wipes, bread crumbs, and bronzer. random i know, but oh so great!

freshwater baroque pearls. linda knows what i like! :)

group shot from lunch today.
janine allen, me, chris, amanda, erik, matt lucas, kaitlyn, chaney

Thank you family for sending us some love, and thank you to Matt and Janine for toting it along with you! Thanks for sacrificing a "little" extra weight in your bags to bring smiles to our faces :)

Encouraged

On Friday, Chris and I both had parent teacher conferences. While they're only have way done [to be completed on wednesday] we both walked away feeling encouraged. Not that either of us expected them to go horribly, but there's always that fear right?! Even some of the ones I expected to be the hardest went incredibly smooth. I was thankful for understanding parents who could still view their children as 6 and 7 year olds.    [Sooo much pressure is put on kids here at such an early age. They leave school only to go to extra math, mandarin, bahasa, piano, violin, and any other lesson you can think of! They're only 6 for cryin' out loud! Let them be kids!]      Okay, I just needed to rant for a bit :)


From Chris's mouth: "I was worried that my first parent teacher conferences would look more like the scene from Beauty and the Beast where the parents would assault my classroom with torches an pitchforks, and none of the desks would defend me." It's safe to say they were nothing like that! They went really well, and he said the parents just asked questions about how their students were doing, and he was prepared to answer them. Easy peasy lemon squeazy! :)

The parents of my kids were so great. I don't get to see most of them because the nannies bring the kids to school and pick them up, so it was nice to meet with them. One dad told me how thankful he was that his son was in my class. He said he asked his son last year if he thought his teacher loved him, and he said no, which broke the father's heart. He said he asked him the same question this year, and his son said, "Yes, I know Mrs. Katie loves me." I wanted to cry right there! I'm so thankful that they are able to see love through my discipline. It's so hard trying to walk the line of fun and discipline. Of course I want to be that fun teacher that all the kids love, but they will walk all over you if you don't establish strict expectations first. They say the rule is "no smiles until Christmas" so technically I have 2 more months to go! ;)

Another mom said that her son absolutely loves school now! She hesitated to put him in our school last year because she was afraid it wouldn't run smoothly since it was the first year open. Her son didn't like school because his teacher was so strict and he became afraid to speak in class. He's still pretty shy and I'm working on getting him to participate more, but I'm so thankful he is happy! She said he asks her all the time why she didn't let him come last year, because "Mrs. Katie is so much nicer!" I guess God was trying to tell me through conferences that I'm not a mean teacher even though I feel like it some days. [I made them miss all of their morning break twice last week because they weren't respectful to another teacher]. They know I don't put up with that!

One last comment I just have to throw in here. . .
This cute little Korean mom told me [through a translator] that her daughter is always telling her friends at their apartment that she has the prettiest teacher ever! It's from a first grader,  I know. . . but I'll take it :)

AND...

What's a blog post without pictures right?! Here's some random ones from our classrooms. . .

New additions to my class during our butterfly unit!

More wall art

Exploring the sense of touch

Recognize these Addie? :)

Fun with shapes

Mr Chris Cam

The "Great Wall" . . .puns like his dad!

Random Happenings. . .

Here's some randomness from our past week :

Chris, Erik, and Karl took the boy's and girl's basketball teams to a SPH tournament in Lippo, Karawaci last Saturday. Amanda and I had fun watching and cheering on the teams, along with our men in a staff basketball game that "gave the kids a break"  [ we all know they just wanted a chance to play ; ]

No need to box out boys. . .Chris always makes it!

We both made it through our FIRST TERM AS REAL TEACHERS! 

This past week was report writing week, so we were pretty busy trying to get grades done on top of our regular lesson plans. Indo hasn't learned about giving students a day off and teachers a day to do grading. 

Next up??? Conferences. . . . . . [friday and next wednesday]

I've been consuming LOTS of bananas, oatmeal, and peanut butter. 

I make this smoothie basically every morning for breakfast! I just can't get enough of the flavor. . .

[from Pinterest of course]

We've finally got our internet banking figured out! 

This probably isn't that exciting to most, but it has been driving me nuts for far too long, and I finally figured out how to make it work! I'm a nut for being organized with that kind of stuff. If there's an easier way to do things, I want to find it! Being able to pay our bills and make transfers all from the comfort of our living room is one of those things! Woohoo!

The ants met their match.
If you know Chris's history with ants, it is one of domination. He couldn't sleep if he knew there were ants on his basketball court. They would die by gasoline and fire! Seriously. While gasoline is not an option in our apartment, the flame still came through! In the picture below, you can see the number of dead ants that he killed using a lighter [ all in a square foot of space! ]

Flame was only a temporary solution though, so we had to resort to some Baygon ant killer spray. Those ants have no chance if they want to share the same space with Chris!

Tonight.
I felt like a real house wife. . .

I wanted to make some no-bake cookies, and actually had all the ingredients in my cupboards! 

So yummy!

Tomorrow.

 I'm gonna try making this chicken and dumpling soup in the crock pot. I hope it looks as good as the stuff in this picture looks!

[another Pinterest find]

*Psssst! Don't tell. . .
 . . .but by the time I actually got this posted, my Chicken Dumpling Soup was done!
My picture might not be of the same quality, but it was delicious!

Next Weekend.

Visitors!!! :]   Matt Lucas [Corban's Provost] and Janine Allen [Corban's Dean of Education] are coming to Jakarta! They'll be doing some work with the Christian college here. That means that we get to see them! They're both influential teachers and mentors, and encouraged us to come here! 

Can't wait to see them!

[ they're also bringing some goodies from home. . .yay! ]

Weekend Activities

This past weekend was a busy one! When today (monday) came, it felt like we hadn't had much time to rest, but it was still lots of fun!

On Saturday we went out to Grand Indonesia. . .THE mall to go to in Indo. It is HUGE and nicer than any mall I've ever seen. We went out with other expat friends from Kemang (our campus) and Karawaci (the one I visited last year). We went to this awesome restaurant called Tairyo. It was a Japanese restaurant that cooked all of your food infront of you. It was like eating at a first class buffet!

I sure love my sweetie!

We could feel the heat!

waiting to be cooked in front of us!

Dad, please show Grandma that I finally ate an "oyscher" ;]

Excellent seafood! 

Take a guess at what you think this is!!! I'll tell you at the bottom :]  Be honest if you guessed right!

On Sunday we went to Sentul City to watch one of Chris's grade 9 students compete in Kart racing. He competes on a national scale, and was racing against champions from other countries. I went along expecting a glorified Go-Kart race, but I was wrong! The atmosphere was incredible! It was extremely competitive, very professional, and stinking FAST!

Anderson is 14, and this was only his 4th race in the Senior Division. The Senior Division leads right into the Formula racing (Formula 3, Formal 2, then Formula 1 which is the best you can be). In his race was the European champion for the Senior Division, and guys that were up to 11 years older (meaning 11 years more experience) than him! While watching, we learned from a friend about the overwhelming amount of strategy and preparation that goes into these races.  Anderson is mature and humble beyond his years! He finished 6th out of 18 in the final race!

Chris, Anderson, Erik, and Karl 

Anderson's manager working in the pits

What a fun atmosphere!

It was such a HOT and exhausting day, but I can only imagine how Anderson felt after racing a total of 40 laps that day in a full racing suit! What a champ!

ps. look at this cute little guy! they start racing as young as 7! I could not imagine any of my 1st graders doing that!

OH! and I almost forgot! If you're still wondering what the last picture of food was. . .


YAK'S TONGUE! No joke! Not sure we would have tried it if we knew that ahead of time, but it was delicious! We both had seconds!