Well here we are at the cuff of our moving date and I'm feeling sentimental.  
 
I'm sitting here waiting for the future to happen and it's happening before my eyes.  
I'm realizing that there's nothing I can do to stop the move from happening.  
 
Another day, another move, another change. I prefer to call it another adventure.  
 
Thank you Spokane for all of life's happenings, I'm thankful for all of it, good, bad, sad, and happy. I've learned so much from it all. The good memories will be cherished forever and the not so pleasant ones will be taken as lessons learned and hopefully will never be made twice.  
 
I shall miss this place so much, especially the good friends that we've been blessed with. It's amazing how many wonderful people came into our lives, made us laugh, cry together with, sitting around the fire with, work, eat, cook, and create memories with. I'm overwhelmingly happy.  
 
Adventures wont' stop here-I have a feeling-change is definitely in the air, oh yes I feel it.  
 
I won't be working in St. Louis in the next couple of years, but I will continue to work on different projects I've been putting on hold and will continue to shoot for fun and also to work on my travel photography-my first love.  
 
You know what moving does for me? It forces me to look at life as the big picture-the ultimate reason why we are alive. The people that God brings into your life and the people that you picked to be in their lives and how it shapes and influence you to be the person that you are today. There's reasons for all of it and many times the reasons are unknown to us.  
 
Moving also helps me to live life to the fullest-because you never know when you may again your favorite neighbors, eat your friend's world famous enchiladas or walk in your neighborhood park.  
 
I will walk away from Spokane with some of life best memories. Upon reflection of it all, I still cannot believe how everything and everyone of our friends came to be... I can only thank God for every detail it all.  
 
May God bless you all richly in all that you do, thank you for reading this far.  
 
And remember, live is really short, live it to the fullest.  
 
Much love always,  
Suwanee  
 
Before we leave Spokane, we wanted some photos of us in some of my favorite locations around town so I asked my friend Lacey Browne to help us and she left us incredibly breathless with her amazing talent with her camera- Thank you Lacey!  
 
Hope you enjoy the slideshow below.  
 
Our Slideshow  
 
Goodbye Spokane-thank you for being so good to us!

Soooo---this post, I"m going to share with you one of my favorites recipe-EVER!! Well, as you know that i've grown up for 13 years in Thailand, my food taste palette, of course, is hugely influence by the Thai culture. Lucky me, Thai cuisine is one of the most popular foods all around the world right now---and rightfully so with all the potent blends of spices and flavors. When people asked me to teach a Thai cooking class (one of my favorite things to do) I always tell my students-when making Thai food-well, for the dishes that I know anyway, is about using the 3 most important tastes-sweetness, sourness, and saltiness, to create a perfect blend of flavor balance. (Does that make sense?)  
Before going on to the recipe, I've made a lot of changes in my eating habits in the last 3 months and I"m so completely happy I did!! I've seen a lot of changes in my energy level, dropped a few ponds-- hollaa---and I"m truly loving the new lifestyle change in diet I"m making.  
So back to my recipe, one of the most common dishes in Thailand is the papaya salad. I LOVE, let me say it again, L.O.V.E. my papaya salad- or as it is known in Thai as "Som Tum". Now, when I go visit Thailand, for every single day that I"m in Thailand, I will have me some Som Tum-every day- I"m not kidding you. My friend Lana can attest to this addiction-she once asked, "Seriously, are you going to eat Som Tum every meal or what?". I just can't get enough of it. Do you ever have a food dish that you just can't get enough of? And guess what- with the new eating habit-I've really indulged myself with papaya salads-almost everyday--here in my home-in America. Why not? But I've switched up the ingredients a bit because well, if you haven't noticed-I"m in Spokane, Washington-along way from a tropical place where fresh papayas grow. So instead of trying to hunt for the perfect green papaya to make my salads, I've substituted the vegetable with green beans and English cucumbers. My favorite lately has been the English cucumbers.  
So without further distraction, let me share the most tasty salad recipe---on the planet earth---right here on my blog. By the way, the dish is vegetarian and vegan friendly too. Here is what the dish should look like -- or similar to---  
 
 

Here is the recipe-serving 1 person:  
: 2 cloves of garlic  
: 2 hot chili peppers (optional)  
: 1/4 cup peanuts  
Lightly crush these 3 ingredients together in a mortar and pestle  
:1 tbsp. lime juice, sugar or 2 packs of splenda, & fish sauce (the 3 flavors).  
: Half of English cucumber- Shred into long thin slices (or 2 cups of green papaya or green beans.)  
: 1/4 of tomatoes-sliced into bite-size piece  
Add all the ingredients into the mortar and pestle. Keep meshing them for about 1 minute or so.  
That's it!! So simple and easy and you can serve the dish on a bed of lettuce or sweet Thai Basil

I have to add a really great story to this post due to it's timing. As I was eating the salad yesterday for lunch and opened a letter I received in the mail. Check out the highlighted area of the note! I now have a proof that my difficult to convince friend Lana-who's working in Thailand at the moment-wrote to me!  
 

So readers be warned-the recipe is extremely addictive! It might not be on your first or second try but the third time, it will get ya!  
Enjoy!  
 
Whewww....what a long blog post!

I'm thankful for kind words this morning. Words are so powerful and there are so many ways of saying one thing, but the choice to use kind words breaks down all barriers and the hardening of a heart. I've seen it happened over and over again and I encourage you today to choose kind words with people around you.  
 
No particular reason for selecting this image with this blog post, just loving her smile. Life isn't easy in Burma but she choose to smile back at me, Love it!

Need I say more? (O;

I know it's been several quiet days on the blog front here. There are a couple of reasons for that. Since I use my blog to document my photography, my life, and my current happenings, I have to be honest with the readers here. One, I've been really really sick with something that I'm not sure of or what it is. I have never been sick like this before and it's taking every ounce of energy out of me to do anything. I guess I've never really appreciate how much energy I have until I'm sick. (So can that be my belated Thankful Monday post since I missed it this last week? ahhammm...!! ) Secondly, I can't believe I'm going to admit this publicly for the world wide web to read, but again, it's MY blog and I will confess it here...I've been feeling really down about Mark being gone over seas. When he was called in so last minute a couple of weeks ago and and so suddenly, it felt like he was ripped out of my heart...(So dramatic, I know, but I'm being completely honest, remember? )  
 
I know I'm not the only military wife who goes through this process, but it never gets easier no matter how many times we have to go through it. My heart goes out to all the families and spouses who are separated from their loved ones. What gets me through something like this? Lots of prayers for sure. God never gives us more than we can handle and His Grace reaches out to His children who are in need.  
Because I know Mark reads my blog when he's away, here's an image of us on our Agape day a few years back...Have a wonderful week.