My First Karen Wedding

The lovely couple and my students to the left and right.

You may be wondering what 'Karen' means.  It is a tribe of people that live in the country of Burma.  They were forced to leave their villages there and became refugees in Thailand.  I teach lots of wonderful Karen students and was honoured to be invited to the wedding of my students' older brother.  I have to admit that I have a soft spot for these kids in particular because we both started at my high school at the same time back in 2007.  I have taken two maternity leaves since then but they are always sure to say hi and ask me how my children are doing.  I still teach many of them in both my tutorial classes and my regular EAL classes.  It was particularly fun to take Connor and Aleena today as my students were very excited to see them.

The wedding was very nice although I didn't understand very much aside from the official vows.  It kind of reminded me of when I first arrived in Taiwan and had no clue what was going on.  It made me realize once again how hard it is to live in a foreign country when you don't speak the language.  The most striking part of the ceremony for me was the amazing singing.  Not only were there some lovely duets but the entire congregation sounded like a choir singing in unison.  Aleena joined right in with them which was quite cute.

After the singing, sermon, and musical interludes, there was a great dinner provided in the basement of the church.  They basically order Chinese takeout..and there was a lot of it!  As in, it looked like they ordered everything off the menu at a particular restaurant.  There was also another table with tons of fruit.  Connor, my little fruit monster, loved that aspect of the lunch.  The whole affair took around 2 1/2 hours and we thought it was great that it all happens back to back.  First, the ceremony is held and the lunch was immediately afterward in the basement of the church.

I really enjoyed the wedding and hope that I'm lucky enough to attend many more in the years to come.

These are all my students too!  They are very talented singers.

Marni's OnlyGreen Review and Giveaway Winner is...

First of all, I am REALLY sorry for the delay with this announcement.  I can truly and honestly say that this week has been absolutely crazy busy and I have not had any time where my brain was functioning well enough to write this post.

Without further ado, the winner is...lucky number seven, Amy C!

Also, check out OnlyGreen's current promotion in the ad below.  If you purchase Vada Jr. Bubble Bath, Shampoo and Body Wash and Body Lotion, you get it for $35.70 which is 15% off .

To order products, you can visit Marni's OnlyGreen website.  To stay on top of other great promotions, "like" Marni's OnlyGreen Spot Facebook page as she is always posting the latest deals.  It seems like there's a new promotion every couple weeks so it's worth checking out if you're waiting for a certain product to be on sale.

 

A huge thanks to everyone that participated in this giveaway and I appreciate your patience.  I try to be super woman sometimes but clearly I am just a mortal after all.

Look for another great giveaway coming up soon. I am very excited about the product as it's one of my faves for daycare. I'll give you a hint and say that the company name has two words and they rhyme. They are also Canadian!

Finally, please take a moment to click on the Top Mommy Blogs logo at the top of the page (or bottom). TIA!

QCM Half Marathon Race

Today was the big race day! I finished the QCM half marathon. In case that wasn't enough, our family attended the post-race brunch, watched the Rider game, celebrated Connor's 3rd birthday and I managed to do some laundry too. I officially have no energy and desperately need to go to bed. I will wait until I have some photos to post and then provide a bit more info on the race. If nothing else, perhaps I can convince some of you to do it next year! Oh, and if any random stranger wants to know why I always hold up different numbers on my fingers at the finish line, they represent the ages of my kids. Not sure what I'll do when Connor turns 6 but I am sure I'll figure something out in the next 3 years (or more depending on when the race is).

Here are the detailed split times for the race. As you can see, I started out strong and was very happy with my race and sort of struggled a bit near the end. Honestly, I thought I was even slower than these split times indicate at the end so I am pretty proud of myself for keeping my sore, tired legs at a sub 9:30 pace!

QCM Half Marathon Race by skrunningmom at Garmin Connect - Details