Busy Weekends

I got my shots yesterday! I had my appointment at the travel clinic to review my itinerary, immunizations, get antibiotic prescriptions, and...get shots! I give shots all the time at work and I know they're not all that bad but I still couldn't help the little butterflies knowing that time was drawing near. The nurse finally walked in with the prepared syringes and said, "Ok, I have three shots and you have two arms so which one is getting two?" Remembering when I had my last tetnus shot it ended up in my left arm and being a left side sleeper it was an uncomfortable week of sleep, so I already had my answer prepared: my right arm got two. Hepatitis A went in my left arm first, then meningococcus in my right. The last one was yellow fever and she warned me, "this one is only sub-q but I've gotta tell ya, it burns as it goes in so don't pull away from me." Fabulous. "Here we go..." she said. Oh, that's not so ba...ohhh....OHHH...YEA! She was right. As I walked out of the office, I kept reassessing my arm to make sure I wasn't paralyzed  Weirest feeling ever. This morning...both  my arms are sore and I woke up uncomfortable to lay on either side. NSAIDS, here I come!


July already! June was a busy month to say the least! Yea, I only work three nights a week but when you have to work every other weekend those nights end up clumped together in threes and fours in a row with only one or two nights off in-between. Those days demand half of that time off to sleep. I never did like 12 hour shifts...So working at the dub has kind of been put on hold in the last month. I did work a couple of hours yesterday, it would have been a full shift but I had the travel clinic appointment in the middle of the day. But in spite of it all, the funding has slowly but faithfully been coming together. I've received donations from individuals I didn't even think to reach out to. I love how God works in these ways. 58 days to take-off!

I was able to make a few weekend swaps at work and had the past two off. Boy were they both busy! The first weekend, Ryan, Kaitlyn, Rick, and myself took Meg and Ben to Castaway Bay and Cedar Point. The kids loved the waterpark. It was such a joy to see them light up and have a ball on the water slides and in the wave pool. Cedar Point was a blast too. We didn't go on the new ride, we didn't get in line for Millenium Force, Maverick wasn't working, we didn't make it on any of the big name rides but it was probably the most fun I ever had on a trip to the amusment park. Just being able to see it all new from the kids' perspectives. Ben was just tall enough to make it on most of the rollercoasters. We hit Mean Streak first. Megan may have been slightly traumatized...

We somehow got her on Gemini, Corkscrew, Iron Dragon, and even Magnum (which I think ended up being her favorite ride). We were sitting at lunch at Chick-fil-A, maybe 2 hours into our time in the park and the kids were asking if we could come back again next summer.

This past weekend I spent in Howell and Fenton with Rick's family enjoying a visit with his brother from Wisconsin and hitting up the Howell Balloon Festival. The Balloon Fest was kind of a disappointment. They only had one balloon launch and cancelled most everything else due to wind conditions. But Tybee got a new leash and fetching stick from the art fair. Speaking of Tybee, he was such a good boy on this weekend adventure! Saturday we had him at Rick's parent's house in Howell and when we opened up the pool house, none of us were thinking of what would happen. The pool was still covered and never being around a pool before, my curious little puppy took a couple of sniffs before we found him walking on the surface of water! Tybee took a step out into the pool and realized that it wasn't solid ground he was walking on. Acting fast he made his way quick as he could to the deep end of the pool where Rick's mom was waiting to pull him off of the pool cover surface. In hindsight, I'm very lucky my pup acted so quickly to get off the pool cover. Otherwise, he might have sunk and buried himself beneath the surface. He wasn't quite sure of the pool after that and he certainly didn't like his momma swimming in it!

Sunday we got to take him out on the boat and make some use of his spiffy life vest. He didn't mind the shade underneath the dashboard either. He may be a "water dog" by breed, but Tybee certainly isn't fond of any kind of body of water.

hanging out under the dashboard

 It's been a busy fun-filled summer so far! But I'm afraid July will not be as eventful as June has been. Lots of weekends at the hospital to cover my time off and preparing for the trip. Everything feels like it's coming together. Next is obtaining my Visa which I'm planning to do in the next week or two. I almost can't believe departure day is next month!

I hope everyone has a fabulous 4th of July holiday. I will be sleeping. :)