... And Senior Year has started

Wow - talk about time flying. You always hear people saying that - but it really is true!!! Imagine that. I remember packing up our house in Arizona - and loading up to drive across the country to Virginia - and then move into my college dorm three weeks later. Talk about change. I hated every minute of it. I was totally freaked out to go to college - and dreaded the fact that my friends would be thousands of miles away. 
Now here I am - a senior in college - and trying to soak up everything about my last year of college - ever. It's crazy to think that something I hate would transform into something I will miss so much. Now let my clarify - I definitely won't miss huge reading assignments and lame papers - but seeing my friends every day and the soccer games and the chapels that we complain about... but secretly miss during the summer - it's coming to an end.
Let me try to brighten this up a bit and tell you all the AWESOME stuff I have already done in my first week back at school!!
  1. I got to watch an open heart surgery :-)
  2. Made cookies with Doobie, Colette, Alyssa, and Brie :-)
  3. Soccer game :-DDDD
  4. I get to work in the Nursing Sim Lab this year... and try to help the Sophomores not cry as they prepare for check-offs.
  5. Bike rides... where you think you  might die - but then you don't.
  6. Friends can come over to my house for dinner :-)
  7. The Rising - formerly 747
Well that's all I have for now - but I definitely know more is to come!


Oh by the way - we have moved to Marion, IN - if you didn't know that. This is the town where my mom grew up - and where my school is. It is actually pretty sweet that we live here now - we're really close to Nate and Amy... and this town has more amenities than any other town we've lived in!!! No more 45 minute drives to Wal-mart! whoop whoop!


Pics from the cruise :-)

A nice quiet beach in Cozumel

You know how you want to pose when the 70 million cruise photographers take your picture???

THIS is how you want to pose :-)

*Sorry*

Just a little dolled up for formal night

It's show time

The Newest Royal Caribbean Ship - Oasis of the Seas.

Made our ship look like a little toy ship

Amy was trying to imitate the traditional dress of one of the parties that was on our ship for a wedding - I'd say she did a swell job.

Cruise and the Like

So for my mom's 50th birthday - the girls (sans Staci ): ) and plus Gma and Gpa went on a cruise out of Tampa and went to Cozumel and Grand Cayman. Now I know most women don't want to share their age... and I'm not sure if my mom is in this group or not - but when people asked why we were going on this cruise... the answer would always be "For my mom's 50th birthday." I know we could have said "For my mom's birthday..." or even "Just b/c we felt like blowing a ton of $$$$." But we always included her age. 50. sorry Bob - I won't say 50 anymore.
Now you might be wondering why the boys (Dad, Kenneth, Nate, and Jon) did not go on this trip with us to celebrate mom's 50th birthday. whoops. Well they had their own little adventure planned. They decided that a canoeing trip to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota was more up their alley. Ok - I have no idea why they felt like that was a better course of action. You could be on a boat that YOU have to carry.... ORRRR you could be on a much nicer, bigger, CLEANER boat/ship that carries you. So they had their "fun" trip, while we had ours :-)
For those of you who have never been on a cruise - I will give a little rundown of why cruising is the way to vacation.
   1. It is all inclusive - food, activities, hotel... it is all included in the price - pretty economical if you ask me.
   2. It is FFFFUUUUNNNNN. There is a reason why Carnival Cruise Lines are called "Fun Ships." They want you to have fun. end of story.
   3. They make sure you don't starve. You have ample opportunity to attend several "feedings" throughout the day. We coined the term "feedings"... b/c you just feel like you are planning your days around when you eat. You may think this is a bad thing.... but just order a salad if you want to be healthy. And don't worry... they have a gym.
   4. The weather will almost 100% of the time be perfect. When you are out in the ocean - with the crystal blue waters - you can't help but feel like you are on vacation.
    So we spent our time in port doing some snorkeling - and just browsing the shops. Not too much to go in to there - but it was always amazing to see the clear blue water and think... why don't they have water like this in Indiana???
So that was our vacation - but the true story begins now. On our way back from FloRida - we stopped in Tennessee somewhere - I have no clue where - but we stopped at a Cracker Barrel for dinner and then went to a gas station to fill up before we continued our journey. So while we were getting our gas we hear "Someone call 911!" And this is where the action begins. So as my mom is walking over to see what the deal is (she's a Dr. if anyone doesn't know that...) she waves me over - and Amy is already approaching the scene. As I come over to see what is going on, I think to myself... "Oh man, I really hope we don't need to do CPR b/c I don't have my face mask with me..." 
     But it was ok b/c we came upon a little old lady (97 to be exact) laying on the ground near the tire of another car, bleeding from the back of her head. She had gotten out of her car to chase (I'm using that word very liberally here) her son's dog that had gotten out of the car. She had stumbled, fallen, and was now bleeding from her head. Amy ran inside to get some towels and make sure someone was calling an ambulance as my mom was restraining the woman from getting up and reassuring her that we would take care of her. While all of this is going on - I realize that a long time fantasy of mine is about to come true. Back during my summers working as a lifeguard, I would wonder what I would do if someone would be running on the pool deck, fall, and crack their head open - how would I help them??? I determined that I would take my shirt off (yes like in Twilight... but I came up with this way before that movie came out) and use it to stop the bleeding. 
     So I'm standing there - and realize that I could do this!! I take my shirt off (I had a cami on - so it wasn't inappropriate) and hand it to my mom to use on her head. It was awesome. Amy ran out with a BUNCH of horrible brown paper towels and realized it wasn't needed. She later looked at me and realized I wasn't wearing my shirt... but in fact it was controlling the lady's bleeding. :-) seriously it was awesome. But during that time, the gas station attendant (who had no medical background whatsoever) was talking to the dispatcher and was unable to answer any questions, so Amy took the phone and handled it from there. The lady seemed to be ok, except that she was bleeding - and the ambulance took her to the hospital (along with my shirt) to sew her up and make sure she had no internal bleeding. We were thankful that no one ended up needing CPR (b/c we had just eaten a big dinner at Cracker Barrel *those were Amy's words...) and that she seemed to be doing ok when she left.
     We were able to leave after that. We drove away and were working on calming ourselves after that little adrenaline rush - and mom asked me about my shirt. I said, "It's ok... it was a fairly cheap Target shirt... and I got some blackberry sauce on it at dinner."

The End

Kelley's Island

So I know it's been 7 years since my last post - but trying to get caught up on writing about the Philippines took A LONG TIME!!!! 


Since then - Amy, Jon, and I met up with my family and Jon's family up at Kelley's Island, Ohio for a week of camping. We had a lot of fun spending most of our time in the water cooling off and being pulled by Bruce in the boat. It was fairly hot this week... so were did a lot of chillaxing in the water. Lake Erie is pretty fun to hang out it! We invested $5 in cheap Wal-mart rafts... such a good investment. It rained our last day there... but it was ok because it gave us plenty of time to work on our Settlers of Catan skills. Let's just say that I don't have much skillz in that area. I lost horribly every time. But that's ok... because it was still fun! Here are a few pictures of our time on the Island

Ferry Ride Over to Kelley's Island

Cliff Jumping in the Quarry

Amy and I Tubing

I got annihilated tubing

Barkley was nervous when Jon and Amy were gone

My window decided to stop working temporarily - so lame

Jon and his prize catch

It was a great week spending time with family and friends! We <3 going to Kelley's Island

Day Eleven

This trip has gone by so fast! I can't believe that it is already Saturday - and we have successfully completed all of our clinics. The plan for today was to get up, get some breakfast, get packed and head to the beach :-) Once we get to the beach, we were going to take these little boats to a private cove where we would spend the afternoon. *A funny note from the night before was that Praise was telling us about the boats and what we would do the next day. We asked how many could fit into one of the boats and she said, "Well, since you are a bit big, maybe only 3-4." We couldn't even hear what she said at the end because we all started laughing so hard. Thanks alot Praise... so we're a bit big huh? Maybe just a little bit big :)

The three women in the middle are adults.... I'd say we are a bit big :D

    But then Praise was completely embarrassed by what she said so she tried to fix it by saying, "You're just larger than average..." haha like that's much better! It was so funny though - so it was ok*

    So we get to the beach - the SOUTH CHINA SEA! *Not the East China Sea like you might have thought* and it was beautiful!

   So this was what our day of rest and relaxation looked like! Now here are a few pictures of us big people in the boats

Please note Todd sitting in the front like a beacon of hope - and also protecting those girls front the sea spray that got my COMPLETELY WET... and burned my eyes!

     After we spent some time at the beach, we took the boats back to the main beach where our host group from the Children's Home was waiting for us with a very delicious lunch and COCONUTS. After we spent time there stuffing our faces - we got packed up and squished like 15 people into our white van with some big water jugs and the giant pot that the food was cooked in. Let's just say that it was like human tetris (not the Japanese game show) - and limbs where everywhere :) What a good time.

      Once we got back to the Children's Home - it was time to get cleaned up really fast, and then we had a farewell party. The kids had songs prepared, dances, and we even got certificates! It was really touching because all of the kids cried as they prayed for us - but we were able to make them smile again once we gave them all beanie babies. 

   After we ate dinner - it was time for us to do our final packing and get ready to leave. It took us a long time to get everyone in the vans since the children kept wanting to get their pictures taken. We had a great ending to a great trip.

Day Eleven - Complete

Day Ten

    DAY TEN!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wowzie Dowzie... I can't believe it has already been 10 days. Today was our last day of clinic and it was going to be held on site at the Christian Medical Clinic. We got up bright and early (as usual - except today was a little more difficult) got ready, and had breakfast. I made the mistake of taking my malaria medicine a little too early (and without food) so by the time I got to breakfast... I was feeling a little queasy. All I could do was sit there - and I finally had to excuse myself and go lay down. Jerilynn came in a few minutes later and said "Did you throw up?" nope... I sure didn't... but I felt like a could. She told me, "Because I saw you sitting there at the end of the table staring straight ahead... and I wasn't sure if you put something in your mouth that you couldn't swallow... or you wanted to puke." :-) nice. But after a few minutes of laying down and 1 piece of bread later... I was right as rain.
    We went to the church before the clinic started for the church service - and while we were there, the power went out. We were told it would be out until 5 pm. oh man. 

Some of the group waiting for church to start

Our awesome helper - Todd... or Jerry.

This baby wasn't super happy with Colette :-)

We had to do a urine screen... so here is the picture rundown 

"Please don't fling anything on me..."

and pose.

not quite sure what the results were... oh well.

Brie - a.k.a. jungle gym

These were the 2 little piggies we bought to replace the ones that died :-( I hope they have a bunch of little pigs running around in their piggery soon!

This is Dr. Emmanuel standing in front of his clinic.

   We did 2 rounds of clinic - one before and one after lunch. We ended around 4 and spent the rest of the day getting cleaned up, dinner, and packing up all of our stuff to get ready to head home. We have one day left - but it will be a super busy one!

Day Ten - Complete

Day Nine

So it is now THURSDAY!!!! The schedule for today was the same as the other days - clinic, clinic, clinic. Well just one clinic - but we were doing clinic with the Aetas. My job for the day was to be on the wound team and take care of any wounds that came through our doors (or under the roof we were under). Here are some pics from our time today.

Brie and I were matchies - just in different shades :-)

   After our clinic was over - we drove back to the Children's Home in the back of the truck - and almost lost 2 of our translators to low hanging branches... and decided that we would not spend the afternoon just laying around. We decided that we would take a trip in to Olongapo to check out the Supermarket (pretty similar to what we consider a grocery store - except no air conditioning), STARBUCKS    look at those cinnamon rolls! They were GIANT and cost just over $1. Ca-RAZY! We also went to Subic Bay, which is the old US Naval Base in the Philippines and checked out the ocean. Let me tell you that we took our sweet time at Starbucks. We just loved going there :-) Subic Bay was pretty cool too - now that the naval base is closed, it is a hub for local businesses, and is TAX FREE to help boost the economy!!!!

     You would think with looking at these pictures that it was 75 degrees (like San Diego)... FALSE. It was still like 95... and pretty humid... but it was great. When we got back to the house - we played with Dreamy some more, pet the cutest little pup ever... and watched the little kiddies run around :-)

Day Nine - Complete