Happenings and such

What have I been up to?
Well...a little bit of everything.

Last weekend, I shot a gun for the first time and I kind of sort of really loved it.

 

I baked six dozen cookies yesterday for a prison ministry and black forest brownies for my marathon.  That totals four trips to Walmart in the last week for charitable baking, two at 7am.  I was really desperate.

 

I have made jerk chicken, plantains, and pasta salad with mint from Jen's community garden.
 


I have begun packing for Haiti (this is further than I was on the trip to the Bahamas).  My mom has reminded me that there is no Walmart in Haiti.  This time, if I forget my make-up, then I am going without.

Coffee with my peeps.



Celebrating my mom's birthday.  She got a bike, but I am still working on helmet safety.:)

Surviving the drought...I finally broke down and pulled out the sprinkler the day before the city-wide watering ban.

 

I have had some amazing training runs for my marathon, including running a mile in 6:39.  I had no idea that was possible.  A 10-miler with my sister was also nice. :)

I have been hanging out with the cool kids.

Gone to a block party, complete with hoola hooping contests and Michael Jackson dancing.

 

Gone on bike rides, including one to Hartford City, Albany, and Eaton, complete with monster trucks, tractors, dogs, and herb gardens.  There is nothing like the open road during the summer, with warm blacktop, summer sounds, and smells of the open road.



Throw in a little Patioke, bowling, Batman, and sunset chasing.  I have still been in the pursuit of a perfect sunset.

And I have been enjoying all my preparations for the trip of a lifetime.  It's coming and I am soooooo excited!

Flashback Friday

In honor of summer adventures, I am posting a pic from summer camp 2007.  We carried on the tradition of jumping into a freezing cold natural spring on the campgrounds.  I am pretty sure the pins and needles feel detered me from any desire to remain in there longer than it took to swim to the side.  However, one of the girls beat the record.  Hot showers and warm towels were in order after that.

A trip years in the making

Two weeks from today, I begin camp in Haiti.  The stories from the first two weeks have been amazing.  The teams are already making a huge difference.    I have struggled with what to present and how well I can present it.  A rich, white American, who sweeps in for a week, talks about taboo topics, and then leaves doesn't seem to exactly be the most effective approach to this. However, I totally believe that this has been years in the making.  Firstly, I have felt a deep rooted call to do international work since I was about 11 years old. Although I thought that this meant living in a hut in some African village, I have realized that I have really wanted to move around and experience different cultures and eventually pass on my knowledge to others.  This really meets my deep rooted desires. Secondly, I traveled to Aruba in 2005 to a "spanish speaking church".  Only three people were Spanish speakers and everyone else was Haitian.  Little did I know how much of that experience I would need to pull off for this trip. Thirdly, I have been prepping for this experience for years professionally and personally.  I have been a therapist for five years now, dealing with families, kids, and relationships.  I am mostly friends with females and relate to them well.  I have spent a lot of time single, learning how to utilize others for support, but not to fulfill unmet needs.  I have learned to set goals, like marathoning, and have realized the empowerment that comes from that.  And lastly, the pain and heartache I have experienced has not only made me stronger, it has made me more empathetic and ready to experience God's blessings. I fully appreciate thoughts ands prayers in the days and weeks to come.  This will no doubt be a life-changing experience.

Flashback Friday

In honor of my mom's birthday this past week, I decided to post a picture of her 1992 celebration.

Embracing Indiana

I had planned this post about last weekend before the weekend even started.  I was going to put something like "I have fully embraced the idea of being in Indiana...listening to folk music, chillaxin' with my friends, going on bike rides and runs in the country, and lovin' some local favorites."  So, I was going to detail how Gracie and I had gone muddin', shootin', and lots of country fun. 

However, as fate would have it, our plans fell through and we had a pretty chill weekend, complete with coffee and Sunrise Sandwiches from my favorite place...

A stop by a local record store (where we discovered some underground blues records)....
 
 and a visit to the adjoining campus...

We visited a local ice cream shop, where we there are 100 flavors of shakes and 100 flavors of sundaes...


 
We play girnomous Jenga...

We went junk store shopping, where Grace bought a really cute antique hat for $5...

 
We went to church, caught up on life, and made HUGE steaks.


Plus, I got Grace hooked on corn.  She pretty much wanted it the whole weekend.


 We owned the pinball machine...



 
I also introduced her to sweet potato chips.  We ate a whole bag in about 12 hours (mostly in one sitting).

So, in summary, we ate...a lot.  Sometimes, friendships just get sweeter with time and sometimes the company outweighs the entertainment.:)

Flashback Friday

In honor of my friend Graciela (Grace) coming this weekend, I thought I would post a pic of us in Philly October 2007.  Here is kind of a cool story.

Grace and I were poor and in grad school when we decided to go to Philly for a conference.  We arrived very early in the morning to find out that we would have to sleep on the floor of a Salvation Army in a rough area of town at 9pm that night.  In the meantime, Grace had hooked up with some friends who were visiting from Chicago and we were able to finagle staying with their mutual friend’s parents in a nice area right outside of town.  The dad took us to the train station when we needed it and both parents took us out to eat.  It was WONDERFUL.  I am constantly amazed at how God provides.

What makes today so great?

I am wholly loved and relentlessly pursued by the Creator of the universe. I am constantly amazed at His love and grace. If that doesn't make my day, I don't know what will. Happy Thursday! I am also smiling because I just moved to an office with a window. And now that I have my Typhoid shot (and a sore arm), I am almost done paying for Haiti. Yay!

This family vacation blows other ones out of the water...

Our vacation was fantastic.  We drove to Cape Canaveral, Florida and took off on Sunday to the Bahamas.  The Caribbean Sea did not disappoint...nor did the food and entertainment.  Everyone swears you gain weight on a cruise, but I think that the amazing, endless amounts of food made little dent in our waistlines while we were running up and down the scores of stairs, dancing our behinds off, and walking EVERYWHERE.

We first stopped in Freeport.  My parents and Kris tried conch fitters.

The next day, we made our way to Nassau.  We crashed a Hilton there for the day, complete with a private beach, big, cushy chairs, lunch, and a kayak.  I felt a little like royalty laying out on cabana.  I am pretty sure if I owned one of these at home, I would have a perpetual sunburn.

We dined on delicacies such as alligator, mango soup, and the most delicious vegetarian pot pie I have ever tasted.  Kris and I both obtained the recipe from the chef.  We loved the dessert so much, Kristen ordered three of them to split the last night.

Our last full day at sea was July 4.  There was a big pool party, complete with streamers, singing of the National Anthem, and pictures with foreigners dressed as Uncle Sam.  Our dinner was not complete without our foreign waiters singing "God Bless America".  Oh, the irony.



We had a family emergency and had to stop by the ER.  We had just finished our cruise and needed to go to the hospital.  Thankfully, things were not any worse, but continued prayers would be appreciated for our friend, Woody.

We continued to nurse our fried skin (ok, it was mostly me) as we then visited the Most Magical Place  on earth.  The name bears some truth.  Megan cried before we even got to the gate.  It really is an experience like no other, even if you have been there a million times.   There is some magical transformation to a kid, complete with mouse ears and a big grin, asking to go on rides again and paying a week's salary to buy something you could pay 12.3% of the price if it didn't have a certain logo on it.  We received a dusting of pixie dust while we made our wishes.  Mine has yet to come true, but I have faith (and sparkles) it will.:)

On the way home, we NEEDED to take pictures of the mountains.  So...I was hanging my camera out the window while we are on the highway and my siblings are yelling "left...right" as I am attempting to catch a few breaks in the trees to snap the sunset.  We eventually just convinced my parents that we needed to go to the bathroom.

Flashback Friday

 

Meg and I's first trip to the Bahamas in 2002 on our three hour cruise.  (Cue Gillian's Island theme song.)  It is sad on a week long mission trip that this was our only picture together.  Thankfully, this time, I was smart enough not to get a piercing before leaving for the Bahamas and telling my parents the morning I left.

Cruising in the Carribean

We just got back from our cruise to the Bahamas. It was a fantastic time with the fam full of chillaxin', laughter, and sun scorched skin. Pictures will be posted soon. We are off the most magical place in the world tomorrow.