My Oh My, Look How The Time Flies

Believe it or not, the time has come. In 3 days I will be on my way to Philadelphia. For the past 4 months I feel like I have just been waiting around for something I know will happen, but never really think will happen. You would think that with so much time to prepare I would be more than ready; but no matter when I leave I'm sure there would still be things I didn't do that I wanted to.  These past few days I keep stressing out about everything and as it gets closer, I guess I still don't completely feel it yet. I'm sure through staging I will still be in an "Am I really here now?" state.

So, enough about me stressing out. I'll just tell you what I've been up to. As most can probably guess, since I've moved back to Midland to stay with my parents I haven't had a whole lot to do. My younger sister Lisa actually moved back home a week before I did which was the beginning of November. She had just graduated from the CIA - Baking and Pastry Arts up in New York and I was going to spend a month there before I left for Guinea. As you know, that got cancelled, so 1 month turned into 4 months. During that month, Lisa decided to up and move to Maui to work for Bev Gannon at some of her restaurants. She's doing great there, loves it, and just started a new job at a resort to help their bakery get off the ground. Lisa wasn't able to be here for Christmas, but my older sister Anna was. Anna just graduated from UNT - Photography up in Denton; so I've really got some pressure to take pictures in Madagascar. She's been able to find more and more photography opportunities around Dallas, so it will be really exciting to see some of the things she does.

For New Years, Mark and I drove to Albuquerque to ski in single digit temperatures and who knows how cold wind chills. It was a pretty neat place to ski; there was a restaurant on the top of the mountain that we ate and warmed up in after the lift. We were only in Albuquerque 2 nights, but we must have gone to Dunkin' Donuts at least 4 times. (important to tell you there is one no less than 5 hours from Midland) From there we journeyed down to Ruidoso for some more skiing. Whenever Mark and I travel or are together, I feel like we are most interested in food...especially pizza. So, we had to visit Inn of the Mountain Gods for some gambling and an awesome buffet.

Fast forward a little: the weekend before Valentine's Day I went to College Station to see Mark. We had a lot of fun just hanging out, eating brownies, cookie cake, cupcakes, and lots and lots of pizza. From College Station I met my parents and Anna in Ft. Worth to do some shopping. We shopped everyday for random things, we got a bunch of junk food and watched a bunch of Netflix. On the way home from Denton we stopped at Cabela's and somehow spent 2 hours there.

So, not a lot going on since we got back to Midland. I've just been looking at my stuff, rearranging piles, taking plastic off, and not really making any progress on packing. But, soon I will do it! I will hopefully post again before heading out, but we will see how the timeline goes.

Also, there are some other, more important things I meant to talk about, but they have slipped my mind. Maybe by the time you check back here I will have remembered what they were.

Ahh!

Cutest/most heart melting/best website ever!!

http://www.zooborns.com/

Calling Cards

There are probably a lot of options for calling cards, but this is a link from a current volunteer.

http://www.nobelcom.com/phone-cards/calling-Madagascar-Cell-from-United-States-1-549.html

I will probably be getting a cell phone once I am in country, but I don't have a number yet. It should be free for me when people call, but I have no idea what the rates will be like for me to call.

Anyway, that's all I have for now. I look forward to hearing from everyone!!