my mo bro

my brother micheal is growing a mustache for movember.  it's slightly disturbing but super awesome, all at the same time.  here's a picture of how things are looking after week one:

pretty hairy.  after four weeks - who knows what will happen!!  anyway, i'm proud of him for working toward something that he believes in.  i think that movember is for a great cause and i am glad he is doing it!  i made a donation today and if you want to donate too, here's the link:  DONATE!

keep up the great/hairy work mike!!  i'm proud of you!! 

goodbye october....

hello MOVEMBER!!!

yes sir!!  it's that time of the year again!  awesome mustaches welcome!!  let's see what you've got boys!

Movember at CIS

well, sadly, it's come to an end.  movember is officially over.  and i am sad.  i like movember because i really like facial hair.  ok, yes, some of the mustaches were a little out of control, but i do like a beard.  maybe we need a beard month...how about beardember?  hmmm....i'll work on it.  

anyway, we had a very successful movember here at CIS.  every friday the students and teachers could dress down and wear a mustache for 10 000 VND (like 50 cents). and the class the raised the most money got to play a teacher vs. students dodge ball game on the last day of movember. 

it was a really fun month - the kids were really into it and our school raised more than 24 000 000 VND!  that's about $1300 USD!  

anyway, this whole movember initiative was kelly's baby.  and he did a great job!!  congrats, kel!  and congrats CIS!  

teacher's day 2010

this past friday, november 19, we celebrated teacher's day at CIS.  (it's actually on november 20 which fell on a saturday this year).  so, we had a teacher's day assembly where all of the teachers were given flowers and cake and my kids brought me so many wonderful gifts and cards!  i got earrings, chocolate, decorations, cookies, flowers, lotion, and a necklace. 

me and my vietnamese teacher, ms. liem

student mc's for teacher's day

grade 5

mr. jeremy and kids at the celebration

ms. colleen really seems to be enjoying herself HAHA

friday was also our third dress down day for movember.  i love to see the kids in their regular clothes.  they look so great!  the mustaches are pretty great too!

mr. john, ms. janice and ms. britney rockin' the mustache

happy teacher's day!

mr. adam and ms. rita are twins!

then, at the end of the day, we had the most rain that i have ever experienced!  torrential down-pour may even be an understatement!  of course this rain happened just at the time that we were supposed to be getting kids on the bus so that made leaving school very exciting!  as we brought our classes down to the front of the school, jeremy and three vietnamese guys who work at our school ushered the ids out, one group at a time under the huge sun umbrellas from the pool.  it was such a sight!  i wish i had my camera!  however, we decided that this rain proved just how good we are at dealing with chaos!  we rocked that rain storm! 

of course we then had to get home in the rain which was insane but kind of hilarious all at the same time.  even with our ponchos were were like drowned rats!  the splash from cars and other bikes going by us would actually go up to our heads!  AWESOME!

one of my gifts.  it's solar powered and dances!

two of my kids from last year brought me a card and a flower.  how cute?!?!