More of the first weekend home...

Sunday we went to church and then to Cracker Barrel. Adam & Theresa joined us. After lunch we went to the mall for a few hours. Sunday night we went to Chili's with about 13 friends and then bowling! The past few days have been wonderful! :) Theresa took some pictures of us at the Opry, so I need to get those from her.

Clay, Ryan, Steve & Kyle. Kyle & Clay were a little upset to have shown up with the same shirt on. We tried to take the attention away from the identical twins who were dressed alike by putting Ryan & Steve in between them.
Me & Lauren
Eva Grace hanging out in the bushes.

Brooke at Cutler's birthday party.


Ashley & Beth at Brittany's graduation party.

Brandon, Steve, Nathan & Ryan

Ryan's first weekend home...

Ryan got to Nashville Friday at midnight! Saturday morning we went to our niece's soccer game. After her game we went to (guess where the first place Ryan wanted to eat was...) Taco Bell. We had to have a quick lunch because our nephew, Carson, had a game too. It was hilarious watching the younger kids play soccer! They were all over the place and were super excited. The coach kept reminding them which way they were supposed to be going. It was a BEAUTIFUL day to be outside! After the soccer games we went to meet Nathan & Kristen's new lab puppy, Mable. She is so cute! We did a little shopping and made a trip to Maggie Moo's on our way to our other nephew's first birthday party! After his party we headed to Brittany's graduation from medical school party. AFTER THAT we went to the Grand Ole Opry with Adam and Theresa! It was a very busy day but we had SUCH a great time! We got to see so many people and enjoy the beautiful spring day...in Nashville!


Carson with Uncle Ryan.
Camille with Aunt Ashley.

Happy Birthday, Cutler! :)

Ready for Friday

I am so ready for Ryan to come home!!! He has 3 exams to take before he can come home. I'm just praying for the tests to hurry up and get over and for him to have a safe day of traveling on Friday... and that he makes all of his flights!

Ok, so, update on Ryan: He has been studying for 5 shelf exams, 3 practicals and the last exam of the semester, which covers material from all classes. Please pray for Ryan! What a miserable couple of weeks this is for him!

Update on me: I have been having a fabulous time being at home! Although, I feel guilty that I am here and Ryan and my friends are still in Dominica. I have some really good pictures and videos from St. Maarten, but I can't figure out how to upload them on my parent's computer. I haven't been doing anything too exciting...I cooked dinner for my parents one night. Went to the eye doctor - getting glasses for up close use only. Got my hair cut and colored. Martha Lynn said that Ryan did a good job of cutting my hair! :) Visited with several friends! Helped my parents have a very fun party at their house for Clark & Laura Leigh. I've been to Books A Million twice and have purchased 8 books. I've been reading a lot! I have a nice variety of books - German, Religion and several fun ones. Not too much else. Oh! I did save all of our lives yesterday when I noticed that both of my parents were asleep on the couch and that Barkley was too tired to get up and play with me. I smelled gas and woke them up and so my dad opened all the windows and disconnected the propane tanks in the lanterns (there were 6 or 7 of them in the garage under the family room). Sorry for no interesting updates!

My 2nd tagging...

I'm not one to ignore a tag... :)

A. ATTACHED OR SINGLE? Married
B: BEST FRIENDS? I am very blessed to have a lot of very close friends I could list! Since Julie was my MOH, I'll say her! :)
C: CAKE OR PIE? Chocolate cake, choc. pie, choc. fudge, choc. cookies, choc. ice cream, you get the idea...
D: DAY OF CHOICE? These days, every day is Saturday for me =)
E: ESSENTIAL ITEMS? cell phone, chapstick, hand sanitizer, ponytail holder, internet
F: FAVORITE COLORS? Green
G: GUMMY BEARS OR WORMS? Not a big fan of either, but when I eat them I only like the red & green ones.
H: HOMETOWN? Jackson, TN (currently Picard, Dominica)
I: FAVORITE INDULGENCE? pedicures, Godiva truffles, buying new clothes, sleeping in, massages, fancy meals,
J: JANUARY OR JULY? July because it's SUMMER! Plus, you've got the 4th of July to celebrate and our anniversary on the 8th. January is pretty depressing. In my former life it marked the beginning of working on Saturdays and busy season.
K: KIDS? Not yet. Technically, since baby goats are also called kids, I have 2 that live near my apartment. :)
L: LIFE ISN’T COMPLETE WITHOUT: plenty of trips to the beach, falling in love, best friends, knowing Jesus
M: MARRIAGE DATE? July 8, 2006
N: NUMBER OF BROTHERS AND SISTERS? 1 brother, but I have 2 brothers-in-law and 2 sisters-in-law
O: ORANGES OR APPLES? both, but since I get oranges all the time in Dominica, I kind of miss apples
P: PHOBIA OR FEARS? flying (but I'd say I've been conquering that fear over the past year), bugs biting me in my sleep, all spiders, public bathrooms
Q: QUOTE? "Though you're far from home, home is where HE is." (it's from a song) and "You're never fully dressed without a smile!" - Annie (also from a song)
R: REASONS TO SMILE? I'm home! And Ryan will be here in 12 days! And I have my wedding rings back! My hand feels naked in Dominica without them.
S: SUPERMAN OR WONDER WOMAN? who cares? I used to like Batman, though.
T: TAG 5 PEOPLE: Andrea, Elisabeth P., Czarina, Eryn, Whitney
U: UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT ME. Apparently I speak German with a Viennese accent. (Or so I'm told by a couple from Munich, Germany) Makes sense since I lived in Vienna for 3 months!
V: VEGETABLE? Potatoes and Okra (fried okra is the best!)
W: WORST HABIT? Worrying - takes the joy outta life!
X: X-RAY OR ULTRASOUND? What? Since I've only ever had an x-ray, I guess I choose that.
Y: YOUR FAVORITE FOOD? Filet (but I have about 100 favorite foods)
Z: ZODIAC SIGN? Gemini

No place like home...

I'm home! I decided I better update the blog since some people at church this morning were interested to know when I would be going back to Dominica so I could keep the blog going. :) Let's see...I left last Friday morning to go to St. Maarten and join a group from Greater Atlanta Christian School to do mission work. There were 12 high school students and 3 other "adults". When exactly did I become an adult? It happened so fast, I must have missed it. St. Maarten/Sint Martin is a very beautiful place. Much prettier than Dominica (in my opinion), and definitely much more developed. The colors of the water in SXM remind me of the Mayan Riviera in Mexico. The water around Dominica is pretty dark because it is deep. We were very busy all week. During the day we went to a Christian school on the Dutch side (where they speak English) and helped the students with their school work. We also put together a library for them. GAC had a book drive before the trip and brought about 805 books for the school! At night we went to the French side of the island and held VBS...in French! The older kids spoke English, so I worked with them. I now know how to sing Jesus Loves Me, If You're Happy and You Know It..., and Jesus Loves the Children of the World in French. We also had a youth day on the Dutch side to play games with the kids from church, went to an orphanage twice to paint and clean up, went to a nursing home to visit the residents, cleaned up about 20 big bags worth of trash off a beach, and attended a 3 hour church service in French! It was a very fun, but very exhausting trip! When we arrived at the orphanage we learned that 22 of the children had the chicken pox! Ryan has never had it and is completely terrified of getting it. Then at VBS a child was throwing up everywhere and they told us the flu was going around! Since Ryan has many important tests to take over the next 2 weeks, we decided that I better go straight to TN (rather than going back to Dominica for 1 day, as was the original plan). No need to take 4 extra flights and possibly deliver some type of sickness to him! I was sad to not get to see him, but since I hate to fly I was happy to cut my flights down from 6 flights in 2 days to only 2 flights! However, since I didn't go home b/f coming to my TN home, I only have mission trip clothes! My wardrobe consists of athletic shorts/pants and Tshirts...and it's freezing here! I'll try to post some pictures of SXM later this week. Getting home was an adventure - isn't it always? I had to go from SXM to Miami. I hate the Miami airport so much! I have never seen so much chaos in my life. If you are ever going to Miami (ex. if you come visit us in Miami when we move there in December) fly into Ft. Lauderdale and drive! It's only an extra 30 min drive and definitely worth it! Anyway, I had to wait in the airport for about 5 hours and it was so cold that I had to go into the gift shop and by a pashmina (there weren't any sweatshirts or blankets so I just wrapped up in a pashmina (it's like a scarf, for the men who are reading and don't have a clue what I'm talking about). My flight was supposed to get in at 11:45 this past Thursday night. Instead it arrived around 12:20 AM and there was a big storm coming. We finally left Nashville and headed for home around 12:45 AM. I was exhausted and went to sleep and the next thing I know we were pulled over at a gas station waiting for a big storm with hail to pass through. I went back to sleep and woke up as we pulled into the garage at 3:30AM. Of course I had to take a shower since I had been traveling all day. I probably went to sleep a little after 4:00 AM and then got up to go to Martin for Nana's birthday party. It was a lot of fun! My first weekend home has been fabulous! I'm ready for Ryan to get here! He arrives a week from Friday. Please keep praying for him so he doesn't get burnt out! He's almost finished his first year of medical school! :)

One week from today...

This has been my fabulous bible study group. We have met once a week for the past 2 semesters. From left to right: Ralna, Jamie, Ashley, Katie, Andrea, seated: Czarina & Denise. Last night at dinner I mentioned that my tennis shoes were lost/stolen and that I was worried about having enough knee-length pants for St. Martin. Today at lunch 3 of these girls brought me pants to take to St. Martin & Czarina gave me her tennis shoes. They're such a blessing!

What we have here are 2 love birds all cozied up in our bathroom window. I walked in the bathroom and their tail feathers were poking up against our screen. I was kind of nervous when I went to the bathroom because I was afraid they would poop and it would run down our wall and get on me! They're finally gone!

One week from today I'll be home! I cannot believe how quickly time has passed this semester! I have been in Dominica for 3 consecutive months, but it doesn't feel like it's been that long. Time flies when you're having fun - and I've had a really fun 3 months! I've toured a lot of the island, had visitors, started a bread business, served on the RSO Board, served as Treasurer for RCF, loved my women's bible study group and just enjoyed our life on this Caribbean island. Even though I'll be home in 7 days, it's going to be a super-busy 7 days! I leave in the morning to go to St. Martin, return Wednesday morning, and leave again Thursday morning for a full day traveling to the U.S.A.! I've been trying to tie up loose ends here: depositing money for next semester, depositing RCF's contributions, paying rent for April & May (since I won't be back til May), evening up bread expenses with Andrea, packing for St. Martin, packing for home, buying groceries and electricity so Ryan won't have to worry about it, cleaning the apartment, attending one last RSO meeting for the semester, organizing laundry so Ryan can send it this week, putting gas in the car for Ryan (I don't want him to have to do anything but study), cooking for our women's bible study dinner last night, booking a hotel in San Juan for May, the list goes on! Please pray for safe travels for me and for wisdom and peace for Ryan as he studies for his practicals, exam 3, and all of his shelf exams. Even though I'm really looking forward to being home, I'm a little sad to leave this time. Obviously, I will miss Ryan, but I also have several friends that are 4th semester and will not be back in May. :( Sad!

Some days are just like that...

Have y'all ever read the children's book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? Throughout the book it says "some days are just like that". Well, it's only 11:30 AM in Dominica, but so far that has been my day! Andrea and I were going to go to the gym this morning. Never happened because I lost my tennis shoes. Either I lost them or someone stole them. I checked our whole apartment and no shoes, so no gym. I am leaving for a mission trip on Friday and will need tennis shoes. The only comparable shoes I have here are the Keens that my mom brought for herself but left for me. She hated them and thought they were so ugly, but definitely served their purpose. She gave them to me when she left but when she found out I would be painting on the mission trip she didn't want me to wear them and get paint on them. I know they were expensive, but I don't think she is ever planing to wear them again so I found it kind of funny that she didn't want paint on the shoes she hated and gave to me. Since the gym was out we decided to run errands so first we went to the ATM. The first ATM we went to was out of service. The second one worked so we headed into town to get gas for the car. NO GAS. And I'm very low on gas right now...almost on the E. So we went to the local grocery and they were out of everything...butter, eggs, wheat flour, good cereal (they had some crappy ones)...the list goes on. I dropped Andrea off and came home to fix lunch and just as I got out of the car I blew out my flip flop. If you don't know what that means it just means that the part that goes in between your toes popped out and there's no way to fix it. They were my new flip flops that my mom brought only 2 weeks ago! I had to walk barefooted! Ughh! Well, halfway barefooted. I still had one flip flop on. To top it off, when the flip flop blew out I looked down and noticed that the flip flops I was wearing do not even match. I kind of feel like that cartoon guy and the rain cloud follows him wherever he goes, but the sun is shining all around him. Oh well, some days are just like that!