I had one day to recuperate and get my feet back on the ground on Sunday but the day was full of church and people coming over to hangout and greet me… I don't know if you realize this but I am a pretty big deal to people, (there is no reason for it and I can't really figure out what it is but I am surrounded by lots of people who seem to like me, so blessed!!)
Josh, Amanda, Shara and I... do we have something in our teeth?
By Monday I was off and running, to the gym at 6 am and then off to work with Heartland where I had to chance to go back and work days in Warrenton, Va and then be on call for our Fairfax office! I was out cruising the roads of Virginia and trying to not think of the adventure I had been on for the past 2 months……… lets just say that it was really hard to concentrate on patient care and life when I still had visions of amazing people and beaches in my head…. such a tough life…. I ended my week of work by taking a bus up to Philadelphia to hang with Dave Benton and Rachel ;) We made it out to Hershey, Pa where Simmandi, Dave and Rachel made chocolate bar like Willie Wonkas and then took a chocolate tour, so fun! We then went one to the amusement park and ate all the greasy fried food we could find ;)
Chocolate tour ;)
The next week of work was very busy and had me putting in lots of time in the on call hours, but hey I spent 2 months not working and I had a light at the end of the tunnel…. Aka a trip to Mexico just 2 weeks away so I knew I could handle it even if it was EXHAUSTING!!! I was able to go and swing by to see some of my sweet patients from before I went to the DR. I sadly didn't get to see all of them, so if you are reading this and didn't get to see me, I am sorry and will try to get by to see you when I am back in the area!! On Saturday I got to go on a tour of the Capitol given by my dear friend Melissa and then went to Eastern market in DC for my first time ever, it was sooooo much fun and I loved buying the fresh fruit/veggies! On Sunday I was able to go to a BBQ with my coworker Amanda and her sweet baby Virginia (Vey), it was Betseys' son Andre was graduating from High School. It was nice to catch up with those girls and enjoy a well cooked Haitian meal ;)
Capitol Tour with Melissa and Amanda
Out to eat at Matchbox with the girls and Josh/Shane
The third week home was also another busy one for work but I had some things I also wanted to make sure I did with my friends in DC so we went to an outdoor movie with friends, a Nats game on tuesday, we went out for a birthday dinner with a great friend then a girls sleepover night on Friday. Saturday pulled it all together for me, it began with a run around Potomac to the monuments with Janan, then to Ihop with Josh Shane Amanda Shara Melissa and Janan. From there we went to KAYAKIng on the Potomac river with our group and then the Trifecta (Amanda Shara and I) went to a school pool party, so fun with them, and then we ended the night with a BANG by going to see Brave, the newest Disney Pixar movie with the redheaded Heroine (the first Disney movie with a girl heroine in it), She has a look very similar to mine so I may have pretended that I was the inspiration for the movie… just maybe ;)
Nats vs. Tampa Bay
Me, Amanda, Melissa (my twin), Angela, Shara
Merida.... I mean KJ... So hard to tell the difference
Kayaking with Shara, Janan, Shane, Ali, Amanda, Josh, Melissa @ Jacks Boathouse
Sunday was a nice day at church and Amanda taught a lesson in Relief Society about the talk given by Elder Ucdorf: The Merciful Obtain Mercy www.lds.org When our hearts are filled with the love of God, we become “kind one to another, tenderhearted, forg... It was very touching and good for a lot of people listening think because she got a lot of positive feedback from it!! Sunday night we went over to Jayci and Emily's apt and got to spend time with some of our favorite girls and eat tasty shakes, can't beat that with a stick ;) Monday was a day of busy chaos and errand running but all things were accomplished and good times were had in the mean time. Amanda and I had lunch in Dupont with 2 girls from church Mia and Lori, so nice because I haven't known them well before yesterday. I found a great beach hat which I will debut in a picture in a future post…. Now for heading out to Mexico…. (those who don't know, I am heading down to Cozumel for the next 5 weeks to do volunteer humane society work, some medical training, Spanish classes, and oh ya some sun and relaxation ;))
Crew house on the Potomac
Key Bridge, love love
Today….. PHEW ha ha ha ha Where to start?…. my last day at Outlaw cross fit… again lol well it was especially momentous because it was a last day with a good friend Tom (who is moving to Korea with the Army before I get back from this next adventure) and so I was a bit emotional feeling parting ways with him in the Starbucks parking lot (a once a week tradition he and I like to do lately) but didn't have time to think about it because I had to run to the dry cleaners, the post office, shower and finish packing by 10 am and it was already 8 am…… needless to say from then until this moment my day has felt pretty rushed ha But for the story of the day, I get chills thinking about how meant to be things are and still can't believe how sneaky and miraculous the Lord is! Here is the story….. So a girl in our church ward needed a ride to the airport for a flight about 3 hrs before ours, she is in a wheelchair and I often help her out at church, not to mention she is one of the COOLEST people I have had the pleasure to associate with… But knowing she would need extra help and time we left with plenty of time, arrived at BWI and I took her to the counter (Airtran) and Amanda headed to our ticket counter, US Airways. I sent Deb off with a service worker and headed to check our bags in early with Amanda. Of course our luggage was 61.5 lbs each, who are the airlines kidding?! Women should be allowed to have at least 60# and keep the men at the 50# limit!! (I have never seen a man struggle with too much weight in his luggage, but am constantly seeing girls pulling shoes and jeans from their checked bags) So as we sat at the counter and pulled our heaviest things out we just laughed and said "it was a good thing we were doing this early" little did we know we were setting ourselves up…. ha So we checked bags and headed to FIND our car which we had no idea where it was parked because that was the last thing on our mind when we got to BWI. Finally we found the car and…. oh wait, KJ can't find her keys….. hmmmmmm lets think, didn't have them in the bathroom with Deb, had them when locking the car…. So either I slipped them in my luggage I just checked or left them at the Airtran counter. So I headed to US while Amanda ran to Airtran to locate keys… (WE still had our carry on luggage in my car and needed to drive my car over to my Great Uncle Phils house to park my car) I got to the counter and got a lecture from Owen about not putting my keys in my luggage EVER and then headed to baggage claim to find my bag with a prayer in my heart to find them there… After getting Amandas' bag first and then finally mine I found my keys tucked safely away between some Undies ;) so yay off to the car!!! With a few episodes of confusion and wrong locations we got a address of where we needed to go and Finally by 215 we made it to Hanover Md where our drop off 2nd cousin Kate was waiting patiently for us, she got us to the airport in no time at all, we made it to our flight and got seats next to each other, next stop Charlotte NC! We arrived with a hour to kill so we went and rocked on the chairs and listened to a young boy play the piano while a large African American man who looked just like Suge Knight sang along. We spoke with dearest Jen Jarrett and found out great news from her and then ran to PinkBerry to get one last American treat before we boarded our flight to Cancun at 615. (this was going to get us into Cancun by 830 and then we were going to catch a hour long bus to Playa Del Carmen and take the 10 PM ferry to Cozuemel which is the last one for the night. If this last part failed our plan was to stay over night in Playa and take the ferry in the AM) So as we were about to board our flight the gate clerk came on the intercom and asked if anyone flying would be willing to give up their seats because they had overbooked the flight…. amanda and I were the LAST people to get to the gate. The bonus was that they would give a place to stay for the night, a $300 voucher for flight, and fly anyone out for a flight first flight tomorrow………….. UH hello!!! We had no rush since we have 5 weeks in Mexico, why on earth not?! So we asked if both of us could give up our seats and have a place to stay, and the gate clerk looked at us with sweat on her face and panic in her eyes and said, "Yes!!! that is exactly what we need!" we then heard a lady shout out loud and say "OH my goodness YES!!" We looked over to see a family Mother Father teenage daughter and young son looking at us with forlorn looks waiting for our response. We looked at each other and said, "Sure we will do it" the Mother then started to cry and thank us tons and said her daughter wanted to hug us. Amanda ran over and hugged her and the daughter was then crying at this point…. I was busy sorting things with the gate clerk but was getting chills by the beautiful scene taking place in the middle of the airport ;) The families seats never existed even though they had paid so they were going to have to wait over night and miss out on a night of their vacation, it meant so much to them and they were the sweetest Eastern European family we had seen so we felt extra happy to give them our seats, even as they were heading out the door they were yelling their gratitude to us, blessings!
So here we sit in a Courtyard Marriott in Charlotte North Carolina and feeling extra happy and relaxed and pleased that we were able to help some people out.. and Now we can afford to make it to Utah for a certain friends wedding in August….. :) things are meant to be!! Tomorrow we fly out directly to Cozumel, Mex and begin our adventures in the Gulf where we have no expectations but just plan to be our best, do our best, and gain what we are suppose to from this great blessing we are able to take part in!!!
