The Adventures of Molly Kate

Monday, July 4, 2011

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.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

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...

Monday, May 23, 2011

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.

A Day in the Life: Crafting for SVOSH

I signed up for an organization at school last fall called SVOSH. This stands for Student Volunteers in Optometric Service to Humanity. What we do is travel to various locations in Central and South America and give eye exams and glasses to those who would otherwise have no access to vision care. The members of the group are divided up into smaller teams that travel to a location and give eye exams all week.

In order to prepare and fund these trips the members do a lot of volunteer work to fund-raise. In April I was still short 10 hours from the 30 hour requirement. Then there was good news, we were going to have an arts and talents auction! Yay! a reason to do crafty things and get volunteer hours for the money it would raise! So here is a bit of my sewing excitement from April...

Selecting fabric for an apron.