Thankful Saturday, Birthday Edition!

 This week was my birthday and it's been a great week :)

I'm thankful for:

1. Kayaking with Kate on my actual birthday

2. Dinner with Kate, Garth and Karen

3. Lunch with Babs

4. Lots of texts and messages from family and friends on my bday

5. Spending July 4th with mom

6. A three day weekend

7. Game night with friends last night

8. A thunderstorm to cool things off today because its been crazy hot

9. I snuck a hike in Tuesday night at Lake Needwood before the heat dome came

10. Watching world cup games online and in sports bars

11. Watching Kelsey set the world record rowing from California to Hawaii!

Thankful Saturday, Luna Edition

 This week I'm thankful for:

1. Tentative good news about Luna. We think she has cancer, but she had scans this week that were clear, which means it looks like the cancer hasn't spread. Fingers crossed this means she can have the cancer removed in a few weeks with no complications.

2. A great vet

3. More free time in the evenings in the summer.

4. I got to go to Frederick Pride today which was fun, it was a lot bigger than Rockville Pride.

5. Spontaneous hanging out with Lash last night until 2am and good conversations.

6. Hanging out with friends at church tonight for a potluck.

7. Watching world cup games this week. I got to watch the Ghana England game in a bar, and the England Panama game at church tonight.

Thankful Sunday, Summer Edition

 Still working on posting thankful Thursdays on Thursdays, but here we go.

This week I'm thankful for:

1. Some gorgeous weather. I have spent several hours reading in my hammock this weekend- its been warm with low humidity. 

2. Fireflies

3. Another cousins hangout, this time with Kate and enormous ice cream sandwiches at Baked Bear. 

4. I'm taking a writing class this summer on research for historical narratives, and so far its really interesting!

5. I got to hear one of my favorite podcasters do a live show in person.

6. Lunch with mom

7. Dinner and 3+ hours of conversation with Babs

8. A vet that's great with Luna

Thankful Monday (!), Busy life edition!

 So I completely forgot to post last weekend, whoops! Here's a catchup with lots to be thankful for!

1. I got to check out the Virginia Renaissance Festival on June 6th. It was very sunny but I hid in the shade a lot. I saw some friends, heard lots of good music, got a lesson on chanter and Irish Whistle from a friend, and had a long conversation with someone at the Knightwings with lots of cool raptors. It's a bit of a different vibe than MD Ren Faire, but I really liked it. Less crowded, and different music groups. 

2. My church had our booth at Rockville Pride again. I'm so glad to be part of a church that values going to Pride and reaching out to people. 

3. I'm re-certified for CPR for another 2 years. There was some registration drama a couple of months ago that delayed my signing up for the class, but I did my test out with no issue. I laughed that they said use whatever you had available as a mannequin (it was via zoom), so I used Luna's stuffed sheep.

4. I got to catch up with my friend Kat from high school- we literally haven't seen each other in 20 years. 

5. My best friend Babs. Noff said :)

6. I checked out another festival this past Saturday, Carroll County Celtic Festival. I saw 2 bands I like, Pohemia and Piper Jones, and got to see Albannach for the first time. I've never heard bagpipes with a Didgeridoo and it was really cool.

7. I got to hang with my cousins yesterday, including Stephanie who was in town.  

8. I'm really enjoying playing (squeaking a lot) my new Irish whistle. 

9. Some nice thunderstorms to cool things off, it's starting to get summer hot around here. 

Thankful Saturday, Ooooof Week Edition

 Oof, this week has been a doozy. A proposal, worrying about Luna, and then mom wound up in the hospital yesterday because she was really dehydrated. While this is not going to go in my top ten list of weeks in my life that I have enjoyed, there are still things to be grateful for.

1. I have amazing friends that checked on me all week and all day yesterday while we figured out mom in the ER. I cannot say enough good things about my people.

2. Health care and good nurses and doctors. They kept mom comfortable, even fed her in the ER, and were very thorough in figuring out what was going on (mostly dehydration).

3. Mom's care team at Sunrise. They communicated great all week and made the right call to take mom to the hospital yesterday. I know she's in good hands today back at Sunrise.

4. Fun coworkers. Its not fun to be working on a proposal (or anything work related) all weekend, but we had a fun group chat as we reviewed everything, complete with many gifs and emojis.

5. Luna seems to be doing better. She's still not 100% herself, but she's mostly eating and sometimes walking.

6. Beautiful spring colors! Even in a rough week, it helps that everything is bright green and in bloom outside.

Thankful Friday, Edisto Edition!

 This has been an amazing week visiting family and friends in South Carolina. This week I'm thankful for:

1. The ability to do this roadtrip and see family.

2. Getting to see my aunt Carroll and Uncle David in Columbia.

3. Getting to hang out with my friend Mary Beth in Columbia. We rode the Columbia sky tram at the zoo and generally talked for hours.

4. Spending a week with my dad's cousin Betty on Edisto. Talking, knitting and needlepointing, and going on adventures in Charleston.

5. Hiking with Meghan on Sunday on a very windy day. We did 7 miles and change, saw some cool birds and lots of alligators!

6. A good friend Alexandra to leave Luna with while I was gone. 

7. Lots of doggos on this trip! Marybeth's dog Ky, Carroll and David's dog Dyna, and Betty's dogs Shrimp, Grits and Indigo.

8. That Indigo is okay. He's an 8-month old black lab puppy and he ate rat poison on Monday. Luckily we caught it quickly and a trip to the vet sorted him out and he's fine (and has probably learned nothing lol).

9. I got to do a few family history things on this trip, like hear stories from relatives, search a bit on ancestry, find a relative in a cemetery, and see the house my great aunt lived in in Charleston.

10. I got to hang out with Debbie at Cypress Trees and just chat while we did yardwork and made cookies.

11. I got to eat South Carolina shrimp twice this week already.

It's been a very good week :oD

Thankful Thursday, Snowcrete edition

 This week I am thankful for:

1. A small amount of snow clearing. A couple of days above freezing let me chisel out my trashcan and some more neighbors were able to shovel their sidewalks. I even saw MoCo blocking some lanes of 355 by the church today to use bulldozers to move ice off the roads and sidewalk. Small wins!

2. I got hang out with my cousin Stephanie on Saturday. She's in town from California visiting her dad and cleaning out a storage unit. We had fun talking for several hours over lunch and then the assortment of things we found in the storage unit, including fun family photos.

3. My girl scout troop. We prepared for thinking day on Sunday with crafts and learning about Madagascar. I'm excited to camp with them again in April too.

4. I finally got an electrician to my house. The company that does my HVAC also does electrical and plumbing, and they do free annual inspections. I had gotten rescheduled 3 times previously, and so it was nice to finally get someone out to look at things. Bonus- I also can now put all the boxes back in my closet where my electrical panel is!

5. My knee is getting better! Almost 3 months to the day when I over-hiked in November, I can do more in PT with little to no pain. YAY! Still more strengthening to be done, but this is huge progress.

6. Plans to see family in South Carolina at the end of the month. Vacations are joyous even before they begin- I always like having something to look forward to.

7. Luna's adorable sleeping positions.

I'm back!

Wow, I didn't mean to not blog for almost 2 years. So, same blog, but new adventures.

In a nutshell...

I completed Peace Corps and went to Mozambique for a week!

Then I came home, saw lots of family, and enjoyed the holidays in the states.

Babs and I went to Williamsburg right before New Years.

Then I became interim youth director at my church, and got to hang out with lots of fun teens for most of 2015.

After I finished that job, I took a roadtrip down to Tennessee and Atlanta, to see friends and family.

I also went with friends to Frank Beamer's last football game at UVA.

We got a LOT of snow in January of this year. 

I also started being more of a bird nerd and photographing birds.

Karen and I and a few hundred thousand of our closest friends went to see the cherry blossoms on the national mall.

I went to the National Zoo a few times this spring, and PANDAS!

My church went on a mission trip to Charleston, SC and I got to help lay some floors.

I visited Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion (pictured) National Park with friends.

I also went white water rafting down the grand canyon again. 

And now I have a job! I'm a project coordinator for a public health project in Malawi with a cool public health/international development company in Maryland.

So, more adventures coming, and I'll back-blog on some of these and other things from the past 2 years as well. 

Happy Easter!

Today was Ella's last full day in Botswana. We spent yesterday hanging out at the biggest mall in Gabs, me at the coffee shop with free wireless, and Ella window shopping to her heart's content. 

 Today we went to church for Easter.

Took a few cousin in Africa pics.

Ate yummy Indian food for lunch with 

Barbara, a good PCV friend here. 

Tomorrow Ella flies home and I return to my village. It's nearing the end of the school term, so there's not much for me to do at school. I'm planning a big camp for May during the school term break though, so there is LOTS to do for that.

It's been an awesome 2 weeks though, and I'm really happy I got to share my Africa life with my cousin!

Ella's visit, part 2

We headed into Kasane to see Victoria Falls and hang out in Zambia.

When we got to the backpackers, we realized it was a full moon.

At high water, a full moon at Victoria Falls means you might be able to see something really special. So we went at night.

And hung around for a while waiting for the moon to come out from behind some clouds.

 And we were rewarded with one of the coolest things I've ever seen: a lunar rainbow.

So amazing.

While we were in Livingstone, we saw a big youth rally for Holy Week, with youth from several different African countries.

We stayed at Jollyboys backpackers in a fun dorm.

Jollyboys is such a cool place.

Complete with cute guys from foreign countries showing off for the ladies.

We went to a 60 stall craft market.

Ella talking with a seller.

Ella haggling with a seller.

Ella has bartered her shawl for a bracelet...

As well as her socks! :D

We had lots of good cousin hangout time.

After attempting to watch the sunset from the loft at Jollyboys.

We then headed back to Kasane, hung out with my friend Kristin who lives there, and had lunch one more time at The Old House. When I took a picture of this warthog, 2 older men who used to be guides started talking to me and we wound up chatting for over 2 hours about guiding, wildlife, and how they want to open their own business doing game tours on their land. Made some new friends and picked up a potential project for the volunteer that lives near them.

Thanks Mr. Warthog!