CAMBODIA!

Hey Friends!

We just spent a week and a half in Thailand- the last 5 days on the beach and we are in Cambodia now- it's pretty sweet! We'll be here for 5 days, and then we'll be headed back to an island in Thailand for 10 days before we got back to the cold. I am loving being in summer weather- I keep thinking that it's July.
Anyway, can't wait to update.

Joyfully All Over the World,

i {LOVE} warmth!

I've been a little MIA for the last week-ish.....
and things will probably remain that way for a little while because we're in:

THAILAND!

I have yet to see anything that looks like this BUT it is so warm here. Not too hot though- just right. glorious.

and I've had tons of western food and St@rbucks everyday! yes please. 

So we don't have great internet access at this hotel- we might at the next, but I do look forward to sharing something sooner than later! 

Have a wonderful week! 

Joyfully WARM,

Dancing at Dicos

Get ready for some cuteness..... 

So our local (and basically only) fast food joint out here in the "village" is a hopping place on the weekends. We went with some friends the weekend before Christmas for lunch (Hannah & I stopped and got Guo Tie on the way if that says anything about what I think of their food), and it was packed. All of the sudden, someone comes over the intercom and makes an announcement.... not your everyday occurance at McD's. Then alllll the children run outside (I wasn't far behind with my camera), form 2 lines and the fun begins.....

Untitled from Haley Strouth on Vimeo.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love children here? I have?

....seriously obsessed with this little girl.... isn't she the cutest!? I love her little pink glasses. 

.....and these 2 cute little Sassy-pants with CUTE coats.....

and this little guy....

.......but by far the cutest is this little munchkin! Poor thing was paralyzed... and who wouldn't be when they are that little!? But she just stood there watching with this perplexed look on her face. I think most kids would just start screaming. 

Can you imagine this happening at McDonalds in America? Hey kids come outside and dance to this choreographed dance that you've never learned before! Yeah right. 

lovelovelove it. 

Joyfully entertained, 

The Gifts that Keep on Giving

Now that you've seen the packaging, I am pretty pumped to share what was inside. 

Clearly there was a lot of excitement in the air! 

I have a hard enough time buying Adam Christmas presents in America.... never the less here. Buying him clothes that he doesn't want that I want to see him wear wasn't an option this year, so i really had to get a little creative. 

He said a few days before Christmas, "I can't wait to see what I get to play with on Christmas!" Well then you're gettin toys my friend! 

I found this fun helicopter that lights up, makes noise, and rolls all over the floor. He loved it. 

We also have a constant debate about what we want for Christmas- I'm just going to admit it- I'm materialistic and want stuff. So getting "experiences" doesn't really get me super excited. Adam hates stuff and would take an "experience" any day. He always says that he just wants plane tickets for Christmas and his birthday. Not so fun in my book. 

BUT when you live a long way from the familiar it's a little difficult. The one thing I KNOW that he'll want and will look for any excuse to HAVE to go to is any large sporting event. I know we'll go to Ohio in July at some point, so Adam got a $100 gift certificate for tickets to a Reds game. He loved it. 

I also found some good DVDs in English and fun games at Wal-Mart so he got a few of those too. 

Adam came home with this book one night and said, "Look what I bought us for Christmas!" 

So Santa brought all of the boys this book of model airplanes, spaceships, rockets and anything else that can fly to assemble together. 

We all used the EAsian "eBay" to buy each other presents..... but not too surprisingly, a lot of it didn't get here in time so we got to unwrap pictures of what we all got. 

I bought Janessa new Uggs boots. 

In addition to their awesome Snuggies, I bought both of them super soft Old Navy socks (that someone brought over with other stuff for me). 

Hannah got a lovely pot-holder...

and a coffee pot! 

The guys got each other some pretty fun stuff too....

Adam got an air soft gun from Ryan. 

Ryan got new guitar strings

AND some David Beckham playing cards..... His teacher told him his beard looked like David's.... what do you think?

Joseph bought Adam FIREWORKS! He loves them. 

and Joseph got new speakers! 

I got all sorts of fun new things!  

Isn't Hannah's homemade wrapping paper cute? 

She bought me ballet shoes!!!

(like my Santa socks I bought at the supermarket here?!)

Some other wonderful gifts I got..... 

Scrapbook paper ........

and this AMAZING bird necklace from EAsian eBay! 

Seriously- I am so obsessed with this necklace. I don't think I could love it anymore or have picked something I would love more! 

I am now learning to knit and making a lovely {albeit special} scarf with this yarn.

Ryan got me paint and special paper to be "creative" with. 

My super sweet husband got me this fun scarf....

little lantern.....

.... super helpful flash cards..... whenever I need some red bayberries, I'll know just what to say! 

And lastly...... A NEW SEWING MACHINE!

Yay! I can't wait to use it! 

Giving and getting gifts here was tons of fun, and just one more thing that made Christmas here so fantastic. So that's all for what Christmas looked like on this side of the world. I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and thus far, a very happy new year!

Joyfully gifting,

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

Gift giving was obviously a lot different this year {my next post}, so I wanted to make the "presentation" super special knowing that I was going to have to get a little creative. 

I have to say, that I really enjoyed it and was much more pleased with the outcome than I am when I use all of the "normal" stuff from Target and Wal-Mart. 

I found a few different websites, via some of my favorite blogs for free printable gift tags. I LOVE them, and plan to use the same websites next year. 

These vintage tags are most definitely my favorite

I found these elegant tags here and these fun tags here. 

Much better than the generic, expensive peel & stick tags I usually use. 

Here is my (our) pile of gifts for everyone. 

Some of my faves......

This "brown paper package" is one of my favorites, as is this silver roll with the Christmas tree tag. 

I found the silver cellophane in a stack of paper at the school supply store underneath our apartment, and the brown paper was left in our apartment from the girls who lived here before. 

Any real wrapping paper that I did have was left here and I'm almost positive came from Ikea. 

I bought large sheets of iridescent turquoise paper at another school supply store.

All of the ribbon I found at school supply stores or left here by the girls before us. The tiny bows were sent to me in a care package from Catherine, and were greatly appreciated! 

I loved getting creative with the wrapping, as well as with the gift giving this year. 

Tomorrow I'll share more about what giving gifts looked like {so much fun}. 

Joyfully wrapped, 

A Few of my Favorite Things Friday {December Edition}

It's Been a While since I've done this.... So I thought I'd just give some of my favorite things for the whole month of December (and 7 days of January). 

 Lots of faves....

#1 .....SNOW!!!

It RARELY snows here, and clearly when it does.... it's not so pretty but still.... it's SNOW!

it didn't stick to much..... the ground still looked like this outside our apartment

So as not so magical as it was..... it was wonderful none the less. Hannah & Janessa ran through the streets of our village yelling, "SNOW!!!! SNOW!!!!"

and speaking of snow.......

Fave #2- What consumes a significant part of my thought life right now......

STAYING WARM! 

It got REAL cold all of a sudden..... yes,yes I know that it has been brutally cold across the southeast & midwest US for the last month or so. But I never realized how much I took central heating for granted until I moved here. 

This is how we live in America- We live in homes that have vents that run through them heating every inch of our houses at the touch of a button- it can be as warm as you want it to be. THEN when we do need to venture out, we walk a few dozen feet to our cars or better yet, to our garages and get into our cars that heat up REAL quick. Then we arrive at our destination, and 9 times out of 10, get out, endure 30 seconds of cold and then dash into another centrally heated location. We don't have to endure much cold if we really don't want to. 

Now take away the central heat, the cars with heat, the cars period and you have a COLD house and a COLD means of transportation (on foot), and a COLD non-heated destination. Basically you are COLD! 

Poor Hannah got an indoor/outdoor thermometer from home for Christmas.... and yesterday when she woke up, it was a whopping 43 degrees in her room. Our houses stay somewhere in the 50's during the day. You just really don't get warm unless you are in the bed..... with.....

Your beloved bed warmer. 

This thing is so incredibly essential. It's like an electric blanket but under your sheets. It's rather stylish too huh? Good thing you can't see it. You turn it on before you get into bed and when it is time to head that way, it is nice and toasty. 

and we have dual controls, which is glorious since Adam can't sleep with his on. I usually wake up after a while and turn it off though. 

And then EVERYONE has a warmie.....

This is mine that I got for Christmas. It's a little plush-ish winking bear. 

They are just bags of water, with a little socket that you plug a cord into, that plugs into an outlet. In 10 minutes you have a little hot water bag that you can take everywhere with you. You can even buy warmie carriers- usually a stuff animal with a pouch that you put the warmie into and it can hang around your neck and stick your hands into. Pretty awesome. 

We really are willing to go to great lengths to stay warm.....

.......like filling up buckets of hot water, soaking our feet in them and then when it started to get tepid, we'd dump cup fulls of REALLY hot water into it. 

My next fave..... 

#3- getting pictures of my sweet, sweet puppy Lucy from far, far away (hint, hint, keep em comin!)...

How precious is she?!

I seriously miss this dog more than anything! Adam keeps saying I should change the name of my blog to the joys of life withOUT Lucy. horrible. I'm real thankful for my bestest and her boo welcoming her into their family. Thankkkssss Matt & Jamie!

Fave #4...... Skype Convos with great friends

The holidays provided more opportunities to talk to people at home, which just made me that much more so incredibly thankful for skype. 

I made Betsy promise that Trey wouldn't forget me while we were gone, so I loved that for most of this conversation he kept his face an inch from the camera saying, "I see you Hay-ee!!" and would shush his parents every time they tried to talk.... not so cute to them though. 

THEN a day or 2 later, we got to skype into the Vandy Christmas Party with such fun friends! 

They even sang Christmas carols to us.....

and Catherine & Ashley got into a large dress together for us. 

It was so wonderful to see so many wonderful faces together at the same time. I am SO thankful for skype! 

Fave #5.......Peter's

Peter's is a western restaurant in the really nice large city we often visit, and every time we go I make it my goal in a weekend to eat there no less than 3 times. I have yet to fail at reaching my goal. 

This was one of our first trips with some friends way back in August. 

SO DELISH. Those waffle fries are amazing. 

My faves there: Chicken Chimechangas, Cheeseburger with Waffle Fries, Chicken Fingers with amazing honey mustard, and French Toast. 

AND they have Dr. Pepper. WITH ICE in a mason jar. love. 

I most definitely can't get enough. 

Fave #6.... The "Turkey Bowl"

Every year, a bunch of Americans get together in one city the weekend after Thanksgiving to play in the Turkey Bowl. I'm pretty sure it is the highlight of many-a-guy's fall here. 

It gets a little intense.... full contact on the line... and someone always gets hurt, but they love it. Adam was excited for weeks beforehand. 

And all the girls love coming to watch and cheer them on. Here I am with some of my favorite girls.... most of whom are intense. One not so much. She's real cute though. 

Fave #7.... Fun out of town weekends with friends

I lovelovelove any time we get to go to other cities to hang out with friends, and have so loved getting to know a lot of these girls over the last few months AND look forward to spending a month with many of them very shortly in a very tropical place that I can not get to soon enough! 

Fave #8..... a LEGIT western restaurant. 

You seriously can't fathom the excitement. Seriously. There is a Grandma's kitchen is some really big cities in this country, but I almost had a stroke when I saw this. We still don't even have McDonalds here! (seriously remarkable for a city of 2-3 million people in this country)... the only good western food to be found is at Papa John's (if that says anything), so you can imagine our astonishment

We went to the mall to grab Ice Cream one night in early December and while we were standing around talking I looked up and saw this sign- and screamed out loud. 

It has since opened; Adam & a friend went day before yesterday and had burgers. Yes please. Can't wait to go soon! 

Fave #9..... FUN teachers! 

This is our Reading teacher- He (like huh!) LaoShi. She is so much fun, such a riot at times, and I just love her. I don't mind spending 6 hours a week with her at all.

This was at a banquet for the international department recently. 

AND last and the MOST not least..... Fave #10....

Christmas Of Course. 

We seriously had such a fun Christmas here.... As I've already shared in several posts. Christmas has always been and will always be my favorite. 

That's all for now! Come back next week before I jump on a plane to a tropical {not so} far away land! 

Joyfully Faved Out,