Yaaay Career Snapshots

Lately I've been jaded about my job; it's been absolutely ridiculous the past few weeks and I'm just exhausted.  Typically, it's not exciting.  Typically, it's spreadsheets and conference calls. 

 

 But every once in awhile, despite my trying to stay home while dragging my ratty, beaten suitcase pathetically through the Miami airport wearing high heels, pantyhose and a frown, I get to remember why I do what I do: 

 

 

This is a view from the student union at the vet school in St. Kitts, which I helped design and is heavily used by the students here, if nothing else, for the beautiful Caribbean view.

 

Yaaaay career.

Business Travel Snapshots

Don't let the photo below deceive you; business travel isn't Caribbean skies and Mai Tai's....most of the time.

Yes, I did go over to the dean's residence for cocktail hour for a delicious Mai Tai or two, but my day actually started with a 6am wake-up call, a quick breakfast, and then 11 hours of non-stop meetings with not even so much as a bathroom break.  After a refreshing hour for a quick drink and bit of social time, I opted out of dinner and instead followed my new running training plan (what?  What's this term?  I know, right...) and ran a quick 3 and am currently waiting for some carry-out mahi mahi before I take my dinner back to the room to work on a very intense project for what I'm scared is going to be the worst meeting of my life tomorrow, listening to people here for pleasure sing broken karaoke to their hearts content.  I really wish I were one of them right now; I would gladly trade my earlier Mai Tai for a slightly tone deaf signing voice, hands down!

St. Kitts Snapshots

Okay, first of all, I have to say that there is a post missing, but because this is a PHOTO blog and I didn't take any stinkin' pictures last night, it's being recapped with today instead.  Lame.  And I call myself a wanna-be photographer of life.  Well last night I got so antsy in my pantsy about seeing Ryan and the crew that I took zero photo documentation. Suuuuper lame of me to forget.

 

Anyway, yes, Ryan came in from Charlotte and the crowds gathered.  I mean, why wouldn't they?  We tried to go to Backyard, but alas, it's closed on Monday nights.  No worries, good specialty pizza and craft beer can be found elsewhere where a group of 8 can also cause a ruckus....so we trekked over to Charleston and had a blast at Pies & Pints hearing everyone's latest stories about school/work/cycling/travel/etc/etc/etc.  It was a great dinner, but the night didn't end there; afterwards we headed back to 'the gibson house' for some samples of our latest beers on tap, as well as our newest, ummm, endeavor.

 

Anywayyyyyyyyyy, it was so hard to say goodbye, I wasn't ready for the night to end!  But at 12:30/1:00am-ish, we headed to bed.  It was the right thing to do.

 

Especially because my alarm went off at 3:30am for an earrrrrly morning flight to St. Kitts.  Yuck.  I spent most of my plane rides sleeping but I'm still out of it.  So after an afternoon of calls and emails and work, I did a quick tempo workout and walked all the way around the hotel and realized......there's a beach here!  For real, I've stayed at the Mariott a million jillion times and have never realized it was beachfront.  Go figure.  Apparently my priorities are out of whack.

 

Hahhaa, a beach in St. Kitts.  Who woulda' thought?

 

Cornhole Snapshots

 

Sunday since Brian was on call and the not-so-warm weather wasn't cooperative enough for a boat ride, we opted for a little cornhole with our soon-to-be-moving-away med school friends instead.  It was, as always, a blast to hang out, eat good food and watch the loooooooongest game of cornhole I have ever witnessed transpire in our big open yard.  Evenly matched teams is an understatement.

 

 

*Someone is back to her old self, hooray!*

*I only got hit once trying to get this shot!*

 

 

Mother's Day Creation Snapshots

So...this mother's day I went a little Pinterest crazy.  Okay, fineeeeeeeee.  A LOT Pinterest crazy.  I got this ceramic marker in hopes that it works (even through the dishwasher), and it did.  Which meant I was given the liberty to graffiti anything I could get my hands on.  Which I did. 

 

*So precious.  Side note:  West Virginia is a tough state to draw!*

*A hand-sewn (woo hoo, I mastered the sewing machine enough for one towel!) tea towel with my mom's grandmother's brownie recipe written in her mom's handwriting.  She loved it, which makes me so happy!*

 

 

 

*Dish for the in-laws to bring church potluck things in*

 

*Yes, I drew a boat and waterskier on their casserole dish.  But they go to a church that's 20 feet from the lake shore, it's actually quite fitting, swearrrrrr.*

 

 

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, you are amazing for what you do each and every day!

 

Black Sheep Snapshots

Pop quiz:  Can you name my 3 favorite people Huntington? 

 

Shouldn't be too tough; pretty much every post involves them in one way or another.  (interweb superstars!)  Anyway, my 3 closest friends in Huntington are, as I always say, amazing.  And wonderful.  And have the same priorities and outlook on life as I do.  Like church and Christlike characteristics.  Or their love of the water and all things to do with boats, both motorized and self-propelled.  (kayaks.  that means kayaks.)  Or their tendency to travel.

 

Queue Thursday night.  The last night that the four of us were able to assemble all together until June 10. 

 

WAIT...WHAT?

 

Yeah....June 10.  We all love to travel so much that we all made plans for various trips throughout the months of May/June, which happened to overlap in the worst possible way.  Lauren is leaving for a mission trip to Haiti on Monday.  While she's gone I'll be working in St. Kitts & St. Maarten.  After I get back but before she does, Bethany and Candice are leaving for a week long trip camping in Yosemite.  After Lauren gets back but before Candice and Bethany get back I leave for a two week trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos.  I get back the night of June 9, which means the next possible time for an outing (of epic proportions) is June 10.  Sad face.

 

So we celebrated our last night all together at our usual Thursday night hangout; Black Sheep, a new-ish restaurant with great flocks of tacos, live music and PBR in mason jars.  We chattered all night.  We gave our waiter an exploding pen.  We laughed and hugged.  It was a great goodbye, but I'm definitely looking forward to the night of insane and amazing stories from all our treks on June 10--it's going to be fantastic!  Love these girls so much!

 

 

Gospel Community Baby Shower Snapshots

Last night we threw a surprise baby shower for Anna & Cade; we = our gospel community.  I hosted and had some downright fantastic help from the ladies (and Jason, he brought soda since I never ever ever remember to buy any when people come over), so the shower, which was meant to be a surprise since we held it on a regularly scheduled Wednesday evening Gospel Community time, went off without a hitch!  Seriously, it was amazing.  The food that was brought was fantastic, the decorations-made-on-a-penny-because-we-still-have-no-money turned out well for the woodland theme we were aiming for, and there was chatter and laughter non-stop throughout the whole evening.  I'd never been to a co-ed shower before so I was a bit nervous that the guys would somehow escape to the rec room not to be seen, but their participation in all the games and chit-chat was top notch.  Definitely a great time.

 

 

 

*Banner made from already-in-my-drawer scrap paper*

*Fooooooooood*

*Laura's downright adorable cheese and fruit/veggie sunflower.  How cute is this??!?!  Definitely lucky to have a dietician as a friend, so talented!*

*Pesto pinwheels*

*S'more sticks.  These were gone quickly!*

*Buns (not in the oven).  Hahaaaaa, I'm so clever!*

*One of the prettiest decorations I've ever made and it cost me zero:  clean out a pickle/olive/condiment-of-your-choice jar, wrap burlap scraps and old brown yarn around it (had both in my craft closet) and fill with random blooming flowers from around your yard.  Violia!  Cheap, cute and perfect for the woodland forest theme!*

*This idea I got from Pinterest.  Or Google.  Somewhere on the interweb.  It was a huge hit!*

*Game time!  Nate and Laura look like they're deciphering a code over there...*

*Playing guess-which-candy-bar-we-melted-in-the-diaper.  Hilarious!*

*Cade's reaction to "ohhhhhh SO CUTE!!!!!" for the twelfth time.*

*What an amazing couple!  Avery is so blessed to have these two for parents!*