Memorial Day Weekend

At the end of May some of Ben's family from Michigan came to visit Tennessee. I was invited to the weekend festivities to meet everyone. I got into town pretty late since Ben lives about 4 and a half hours away. So I met everyone on Saturday morning. The weekend was filled with good food, site-seeing, bonfires and family time. I really enjoyed getting to meet everyone. On Sunday we went to a nearby town where there was a giant tree house. I hear there was an architect who was inspired (by God?) to build this big tree house. There are church services held in the tree house, but I'm not really sure of the schedule, the rest of the time it is open for people to explore and experience. It was really amazing!

View of the tree house from the ground

Architecture just wraps around the tree and it's branches

Pew in the Sanctuary area

View of the tree house from the third-ish story

On the side of the tree house at one of the "decks"

View of the grounds from the same "deck"

After exploring the tree house we went to a park area to see a waterfall. First we were at the stream at the top, then we hiked down to the pool at the bottom. The water was so cold, but refreshing since it was a hot day!

Looking up stream

Cooling our feet off

Waterfall!

On the hike to the bottom

Ben and I

Looking back up

Ben's family playing in the water

Ben exploring the other end of the pool

It was a wonderful way to start the summer!

You Betta Belize It!

Early Sunday morning we scrambled around to get ourselves out of the apartment and to the airport. It was a feat in itself. Penny hates being in the car and so I normally put her in her crate. However there wasn't enough room with Anna and my suitcases, two large tubs full of glasses and Allison and Penny's necessities for the week away from the apartment. As Allison and Penny waited in the car while Anna and I made two trips to take all of our stuff into the airport, Penny fidgeted in Allison's lap and ended up honking the horn multiple times. Poor Allison had many passengers turn to glare before they realized it was an unruly little white dog causing all the commotion.

We made it to Belize with only one little hiccup. As we were leaving the states for Belize the captain informed us that there had been a small miscalculation and too much fuel had been loaded onto the plane. So we waited while 2,000 pounds of fuel was removed...

Once in Belize we had about an hour drive from the airport to Belmopan, the city where we would be working.

Once we got there we met our host families, had dinner with Belizian beer and set up for clinic the next day.

Anna and I with Zoey and Rolando, our host family for the week. They were so wonderful and made us feel right at home.

Over the next four days we saw nearly 800 patients and dispensed about 400 pairs of glasses.

Second years on the trip!

The last night we had a dinner with all of the Lions and had a dance.

Then we were off for a day and a half of relaxation before heading back to the US for school's summer session. We ate, drank, soaked up the scenes, and snorkeled with eels and sharks!

We had a slight delay leaving Belize that caused us to miss our connecting flight home. We were a bit sad about it and attempted to fly standby, but the door closed on that opportunity too. We ended up staying the night in Houston and took advantage of the extra "vacation day" and were "really sad" to miss the first day of class!

Funnel Clouds, Finals, Floods, and Foreign Travel

April showers brings...

Severe weather and floods!

The first week of May was finals. Finals is always a stressful time, but this semester there were some added worries. First off we had a lot of storms and rain in April and the Mississippi was headed toward historic flooding, with the potential evacuation of the neighborhood where I live. I was also set to travel to Belize just after finals for my SVOSH trip. The river was scheduled to crest while I was away.

The night before our first final there was some severe weather. School lost power and it hadn't been restored by the time our final was scheduled, so the school played it by ear and kept postponing the final. We ended up taking it 5 hours after it was scheduled! The rest of the week was spent taking finals on schedule and wondering/worrying about having to evacuate our apartment.

After my last final on Friday I was running last minute errands to get items that I would need for my trip. When I got home Allison informed me water was creeping up to the back of our apartment! We decided we would still have our post finals party (damn-it we had a stressful week we were going to relax!) And a good time we all had!

(A brief explanation: Allison and I don't have a wine bottle opener, so we are often coming up with innovative ways to drink wine. This particular party we used a screw, screwdriver and a hammer. It was a group effort and worked pretty good, but Allison's boyfriend and I both ended up getting her a wine bottle opener for her birthday!)

Saturday was spent flood proofing the apartment. My desk was on the bathroom counter, all living room furniture was on the kitchen island, the dining room table was put on cheap chairs, my wardrobe was put on cinder blocks and random items were put on extra shelving. It was a long day and a late night.

The next morning Allison and Penny took Anna and I to the airport as we were headed to Belize. Allison and Penny spent the week at a friends house, waiting out the flood. Fortunately our apartment did not flood, but sadly some of the neighborhoods around ours did.

The Return of Penny Laine

Paul and Penny came to visit for Easter. Penny had been with Paul for the previous two months and I was pretty excited to have her around again. Easter was also Penny's first birthday. After Paul set off to return back home Penny and I took a birthday celebration walk by the river. It was a bittersweet day since it was Mom and Paul's anniversary and Penny's first birthday.

Also it had been rather rainy in April and the Mississippi was starting to flood...

Ben's Birthday!

Ben spent his birthday weekend visiting me this year. Feeling a bit guilty that he came to visit me on his birthday rather than me visiting him, I attempted at surprising him with his favorite cake made from scratch. I think it turned out ok, if I do say so myself. It was a yellow cake with Nutella and cream cheese frosting. Ben was adamant that Nutella + cream cheese would be delicious together, I was a bit skeptical. I decided I would try it out and surprise him by icing his cake with the combo. Luckily I was wrong and it was quite tasty.

We spent the evening with friends playing gestures, eating cake, and playing with the gift I got for Ben.