Haiti

Well, we are officially off to Haiti tomorrow! Well... we fly to Florida tomorrow and then Haiti on Saturday. We are really excited that we will get to be over there. We don't know exactly what we will be doing or where all we will be going. We are just going to have to play it by ear. I know we will be doing a lot of rehab and a lot of education. I do feel safe about our trip and know we are with a group to take care of us, but it will be interesting! Promise I will blog about it when we get back!

Haiti

So, the 2-5 of you that actually read my rare blog postings may or may not have been aware that Ryan and I have been planning on going to Haiti on a mission trip with a group called Healing Hands for Haiti. This is a group of health care professionals (doctors, nurses, PT's, OT's, SLT's, orthotists/prosthetists) that send teams over throughout the year to serve orphanages and clinics around Port au Prince. Ryan went last year with team Portland, and we have been planning and fundraising this past year so the two of us can go with them again.

Well... our team is scheduled to go over Feb 20 - Mar 6. Obviously things in Haiti have changed drastically over the past week. Port au Prince has been almost entirely destroyed, including most of the orphanages and clinics served by Healing Hands. The facility Healing Hands has in Port au Prince consists of a clinic with offices and prosthetics/orthotics lab, apartments, and a guest house. The clinic and apartments have been completely destroyed, and the guest house was damaged, but is still usable and has running water.

The fact that the guest house (where we would be staying) has survived is the one glimmer of hope for our organization. They sent a small team there yesterday to assess the situation, see what the facilities can accommodate, and what, if anything our team would be able to accomplish over there.

Right now, our team is operating as if the trip is still on, although our team leader has made it clear that anyone who doesn't want to go may make that choice. Ryan and I are torn because we feel that by the end of February the need may still be more for basic needs to be met by nurses and doctors, and not for therapy services that we would provide. It may be the complete opposite since most injuries are crush injuries, most of which have resulted in limb amputation which would greatly benefit from prosthetics, assistive devices, and rehab ASAP.

We will definitely not go if it will not be safe for us. Our parents and family are really concerned about all the crime and disease there right now. We know Healing Hands would not allow us to go if we did not have safe accommodations and transportation available.

We are sort of waiting to decide on this until we have more information, which will hopefully come by the end of the week. I hope everyone has been keeping Haiti in their prayers and has considered donating to the relief effort. Ryan and I made a website earlier this year which has a link to the newsletter he created detailing his trip to Haiti last year. If you are interested the site is http://www.ryanandmaryinhaiti.yolasite.com/

I will keep you updated on our plans! Take care!

The holiday season!

Okay, so I was harassed on facebook for not posting in the past month and a half... we all knew I couldn't keep up the pace of one post a week... so now I have plenty to write about.
First, Thanksgiving. Ryan and I took the whole week off (thats the best way to do it!) and got to go back to Kansas City to see family and friends before we drove up to Iowa to spend the holiday with his extended family. It was my first time meeting the big clan, but it went really well... they inducted me into their little club by giving me a matching Santa pin that they all wear on their left boob Thanksgiving day! Very fun crowd in Iowa!
Next, Christmas. Ryan and I took the whole week off (since we can, we do!) and went to Denver to spend the week at my sister Ann's place. The first few days were just Ann, Brooke, Ryan and me (that was the most fun part!), then my parents and Katie came in the day before Christmas. It was a really nice, low key holiday. Lots of movies, games, and red wine. We did accidentally do an all day drinking mini-city hike the saturday after Christmas (without my parents!), but then they did have the joy of going bowling with us in prime condition... not our finest moment! But it was a really great week!
Finally, New Year's Eve. We enjoyed coming home to a 4 day work week and a 3 day weekend. We were pretty exhausted from the two prior holidays, so decided to just stay home and relax. Over Christmas we came up with the brilliant idea to make boef bourguignon from the Julia Child cookbook (you know, like they talk about in the movie Julie and Julia!!!) This became quite the venture... first of all, it required buying $60 in groceries (but if you consider we are not spending money going out and if we were to go to a restaurant we may spend that much anyway, it seemed fairly reasonable), but then... I had to buy a whole new pot to make it in (it requires a pot that can be used on a burner, and also in the oven, but we had already gotten the groceries, so I had no choice but to buy the pot too), next was acutally making it, it is rated 'difficult' in the ranking of recipies and is fairly involved, let me just say I started at 4:30 and we didn't eat untill 9:00! Also, it was a full moon that day... this added several mishaps, including Ryan accidentally tossing our plastic stir spoon into the back of the oven and the smoke alarm going off twice! But, by the end of the night we had an AMAZING meal that was most definitely worth the effort, and got to ring in the new year together. We ran outside at midnight and met our next door neighbors who were dancing in the street to Michael Jackson a blowing on their noisemakers like crazy. Berkeley is great!
Currently we are just getting ready for a quiet month of January. My friend Nicole from Seattle is coming to visit this weekend, but after that its just back to the daily grind! We are keeping busy with work and have been training for a Marathon the past 5 weeks (we are up to 8 miles! Fun, fun, fun!) We run it April 25th... promise to blog about the marathon later.
Hope this blog will keep you (Emily) quit for a while! Will check in soon!

You know you live in California when...

... you just paid $75 for a haircut! Welcome to California! Apparently that is what people pay around here! But, I must say, it was totally worth it! I would have paid twice as much for what my girl just did to my hair! I have really thick hair that requires a lot of shaping and strategic thinning out and this girl was AMAZING with that razor! So, I guess I can forget about what she charges! Here is the pic... but I don't think it really does it justice!

Now, to what we have been up to the past two weeks...

Last weekend we went into San Fran for some touristy things.

We rode the double decker tour bus around the city. Well... we didn't do the whole tour, but it was an easy way to get around to a lot of different neighborhoods and get some trivia information about the city. Did you know San Francisco has the largest China Town in the US??? Thats about all I remember!

We started at Union Square. Really good shopping, a little touristy, but we're okay with that!

Our first stop was in Little Italy. So we stopped for a beer. We were only going to have one, but then we missed the bus so we were forced to have another... dang!

The next picture is in honor of my friend, Emily! It is one of the main streets in San Fran so I HAD to take a picture of it!

Our next stop was fisherman's wharf.

And Ghiardelli square.

Then we walked to this place called Buena Vista where the first ever Irish coffee was introduced to the US. They were pretty fantastic and we sat next to this local old guy who told us everything we ever wanted to know about Yankees history! We're friends now :)

Ryan then had the brilliant idea to walk to this place called Perry's to get what was rumored to be "the best bloody Mary" in San Fran. The 30 minute walk was not my favorite moment of the day, but the burger and bloody Mary turned my spirits around!

At this point we had to take a cab back to catch the last bus and had to convince the driver to drop us back at Union Square. This turned into a personal bus tour across the city. It was a really fun first day in San Fran.

The next day we took a trip to Sausalito, just across the Golden Gate bridge!

Amazing views of the skyline here, sub-par ice cream!


The next week I FINALLY got a job! Yay! I'm working in a county hospital doing inpatient PT. Its really interesting and I work with a lot of fun people, so it was worth the week of panic and being job-less!

Ryan's brother-law was in town on business, so he took us out in San Francisco for an AMAZING dinner at this place called Cuba de Asia.

The next night my cousin who lives up north of us in Chico came down and took us out for pizza in Berkeley at this place called Jupiter.

The next day was my favorite day, because when Ryan came home from work he brought me "just because" flowers!!! How sweet is he :)

Then the next night we went to what we were told was "the best sushi on the planet" which is within walking distance of our house, and it was AMAZING! Best find ever!

The next night we went out with one of my new work friends and met some new people! Yay!

Then Ryan's friends from Sacramento came up and we spent Sunday in the city having Sunday-Fun Day and they introduced us to the Castro area (as seen on the move MILK) and hung out with "the gays" (who love to party on Sundays... who knew?)

All in all, we have been having an amazing time in the Bay... but CAN'T WAIT to be back home next week for Thanksgiving! Can't wait to see everyone!

Cafe Gratitude

The very first day we rolled into Berkeley, the first place we ate was Cafe Gratitude (per the recommendation of a lady I used to work with... she is a little "out there"). It was quite the Berkeley experience, a completley organic and vegetarian menu that names each menu item things like "I am worthy" "I am present" "I am satisfied" and they make you say it when you order, and they present the food to you saying "you are worthy" "you are present" "you are satisfied". It is a strange, Berkeley-ish place... but Ryan and I love it!!! The message is amazing... by focusing on all the things you have and being grateful for your life, you will never be in want, and we will be living in plenty. They use all sustainable resources and local ingredients. Granted, they are a little bit out there, but it has given us a new way to jokingly calm each other down when we get stressed out! We just say "Cafe Gratitude" and it is our key word to not take our problems so seriously. It has helped alot this week!!! But, finally today I have had a good day so I am going to give you a list of all the things I am grateful for today!
#1. I got a job!!! I can return to the work force on Monday which is a big relief!
#2. I only have to work 2 weeks then I get a week off to go home for Thanksgiving!
#3. It was a rainy day so I have been in sweat pants all day and ate grilled cheese and soup for lunch
#4. I got to go hang out in the dressing room last night at the Fillmore! It was amazing to think of all the famous bands that had been in that room... I was telling Ryan that when we were standing there and he says "Yeah, but think of all the drugs that have been consumed in this room!" Not cool! But being back there with the band, Vedera, consisting of people you can't help but envy for living out their dream and being so successful, Kristen and Brian expressed envy toward me and Ryan for being in Berkeley and following our dreams! It was a good moment to remember to appreciate what I have and not always be wishing for something different...
#5. I get to travel and work wherever I want, whenever I want and I have someone amazing to do it with me
#6. Its weekend!!! And Ryan will be home soon so we can celebrate how much we have been through and accomplished this week!
#7. I was able to go on an accidental shopping trip today and got the most adorable comfy sweatshirt and a cute weekend sweater... shopping my addiction!
#8. Of course I am always grateful for my friends and family!!!

Enjoying the Bay

So, I know its shocking that I am posting 2 days in a row... don't get used to it, its just cause I'm off work this week! But, last night we went to Costco (the most amazing place on the planet) and discovered a new reason to love being in Berkeley... the Costco here sells liquor!!! Now, don't misunderstand me, I am not a raging alcoholic, but I AM a bargain shopper! We got 1.75 L of Skyy vodka for $20!!! Thats a steal of a deal, and in combination with the tub of green olives we also bought, we can have dirty Martini's until we move again!
We also get to go into San Fran tonight to go to a concert for FREE (we know the band... we're kind of a big deal ha, ha!), which will be our first venture into the city! We are seeing a band called Vedera who is opening for Matt Kearney at the Filmore. We are super excited to be able to go to see a show at that venue. Ryan grew up with the people in the band and I have gotten to hang out with them all the times they have played in Seattle. You all should check them out on myspace or you tube or itunes... they are fantastic! Plus, they are headlining a show in KC over Christmas.

Okay, okay... I'll try this again!

So.... It's been awhile since I've posted on my blog... I knew this would happen, but Emily has threatened me into starting it up again, so here I am! I will make an un-official promise to try to write once a week (or so!).
Unfortunately, my lack of blogging has skipped over all the amazing things I did in Seattle. It is my most favorite place to live (so far!) and I will probably end up there once I stop this whole travelling business.
So, Ryan and I have just moved down to California. We live in Berkeley, which is just across the bay from San Francisco. We drove down from Seattle with our cars packed up and no place to live! We showed up at an open house for the place that we wanted with our fingers crossed that the guy would rent the place to us. All I can say is thank god we were the first ones there... because that was the main reason why he did! So, we got to move in the next day!!! We spent the next few days finding furniture on craig's list (renting a u-haul to pick it all up was an ordeal I could spend a whole blog on... we are not a fan of u-haul anymore!) We ended up getting a lot of our furniture from IKEA. I don't know if you know this, but you have to put all that crap together yourself!!! That took the good part of a day, but we are really happy with how our place has come together. (See facebook for pictures)
Now I only have a few stresses in my life: I don't have an official job yet, I don't know anyone yet, and I am living with my boyfriend for the first time!!!
Stay tuned for how that all turns out!