Alarm clocks and traffic, oatmeal and coffee. Bless you.

Weird waking up early, eating oatmeal and coffee with my dog in our humble little house watching the local news in English. Yesterday I was drinking coffee on our balcony overlooking lush gardens, in a white robe, drinking in the warm salty air. We awoke each morning to birds chirping and the light rain tapping on our roof.  Paradise. Not reality. And that's okay.

My alarm chirping merely 24 hours later is a jolt from the easy living of vacation. I've traded up margaritas for kale smoothies and late night buffet lines for 9pm bedtimes. It's good though, I missed home.

I will definitely miss blogging, checking emails, reading, and talking about black holes with Matt here though.... as you can imagine, I found black holes incredibly interesting and I had a lot to add to the conversation. 

One fun thing we discovered was at the resort you could ask the grounds keepers to cut open one of the many fallen coconuts on the property and drink the water out with a straw. Once you've re hydrated with delicious fresh coconut water you can take it to a bar and dehydrate with a piña colada that they'll pour into your coconut. It weighed like 25 pounds though so "one for each hand" would have been pretty difficult. However, I should have man-ed up because I may have developed some killer biceps instead of a killer headache.

This week brings many meetings with coaches and teams and I'm excited to meet a lot of the students I'll be working with. I met with some students from Plant High School last week at Palma Ceia Methodist Church and got to spend some time with one student who hasn't grown up a Christian or ever gone to church but recently had some things happen in his life that he couldn't manage himself.  Some tough hard things that 17 year olds shouldn't have to experience or know about.  Then his best friend told him about church.  Church told him about Jesus.  He's been walking to youth group each Wednesday and church on Sundays for about a year.  Because he loves this Jesus.  Because he believes that however crazy the Bible might seem on paper and from the mouth of a youth pastor, to a young boy who tragically has never known a McGee & Me video or Psalty the Singing Psalm Book, he knows Jesus lived, Jesus came to redeem those that knew Him, He died for those that knew Him, and was resurrected for those that knew Him and those that know Him today.  He knows Jesus because He is working in his life, to make it new, to make it mean something.  I was humbled hearing this young man talk about this with no pretenses or cliches, no "christian-ese", he wasn't trying to impress me with his Bible trivia, it was pure, unadulterated amazement. 

So while I'm sad to wave good-bye to an incredible January full of family, and love, and sun, and snow, and friends, and adventures, I'm overwhelmed with joy that I get to spend more time hearing about the lives of the students in Tampa Bay.  Cheers.

Beach in January

Matt and I read by the beach yesterday morning and by that I mean, he read "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking and I listened to my book on tape. Not only does it make me feel dumb to hear him thinking and processing his book, I'm sure it makes me look dumb to not even be reading, just listening to mine.

(note: after I posted this Matt mentioned to me to not post any pictures from your beach chair of the water.  Every girl does that.  Haha.  I guess every girl does.)

The wedding was awesome, the couple's friends are really great too which made attending the destination wedding of someone we'd just met not awkward. Matt played the first dance song and did a great job.

 

(note: I went with long black racerback maxi with small black clutch, thanks Facebook!)

It was a little rainy this morning but the sun is already coming out so I've got to start applying my SPF 3000 if I want to go to the beach. I can't wait to go home tomorrow to snuggle my Luke, we miss him so much. Also, the food here is so so and I miss making my own stuff. The salad bar is great and the fresh fruit is amazing though. I'm going to miss having fresh mangos, passion fruit, pineapples, and papaya ready to eat everywhere.

I am so pale.

But not as pale as A LOT of people here. So if I'm going to follow around and pose for pictures with all of my new Irish friends.

Punta Cana is gorgeous and we are having a great time so far. Last night we went to see the couple getting married today at a little cocktail hour and Matt followed me to a restaurant and watched me eat the most enormous salad I've ever had.

I went on a great run this morning just exploring the resort. Because we aren't fancy and never stay places like this I am constantly in awe of the whole place. One of the coolest things is that every path is lined with incense. And not the patchouli incense of my middle school/ cargo pants days but the most delicious smell burns from them. Scented sidewalks seems like something from the Capital. Or I could just be pretending I'm Jennifer Lawrence again. Blast.

After my run, I did some yoga....I could take this walk to the gym forever. 

Check it off

I drove to pretty much every corner of Tampa Bay yesterday. I had a long to do list and the afternoon wide open. Lists are my favorite, there is something really satisfying about crossing something off.

I had some fruit and vegetables left over from my fast and I wanted to juice before we left so why not make lucky number 568765335 different kinds of juice this month? Too bad for me I forgot to put the machine together right and had a juicing meltdown. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? WHY DO I SMELL LIKE CELERY? A big fat blood sugar meltdown. At least I hadn't put the beets in yet. I would have looked like Carrie but less of a prom queen and more of a nutcase. And covered in beet juice and not blood. Life goes on.

Cash neatly separated, passports not expired, house cleaned, and Luke snuggled, we are off. My hair is twisted to the top of my head for the flight showing off my half foot of a forehead. It takes great effort and a lot of methodical application of dry shampoo to cover that on the daily. Can't wait to rip out the elastic the moment we touch down.

Side note, Matt has a song on Grey's tonight and we won't see it since we are out of the country but if you watch it give some hollering and clapping for me when it comes on.

Just do it Wednesday

Another Wednesday where I have a long to do list but a good one.  Matt and I got the chance to spend the rest of the week in the Dominican Republic and however busy life seems to be during this season, my body was incapable of saying "no".  My head was nodding before my brain could process the work I'd miss or the things that needed to get done.  I still haven't fully unpacked from our Christmas trip to Denver so it was a little surreal to unpack my ski clothes and trade up for swim suits.

Matt's hair in the above picture cracks me up.  I love that man.

One of the reasons for the trip is a beach wedding on Friday evening at 4pm.  On the beach.  Invite says casual.  Which dress......

I know they don't scream excitement but I am beginning to think I am allergic to buying anything in a color.  I'm not attached to the gold necklace and will probably wear emerald earrings.  I need help! Bare feet are a requirement of the bride which is fine by me.  Also, our resort's website says that in each restaurant that beach sandals are banned.  As a Florida girl, what sandal is not a beach sandal? Is it just the flip flop?  I'm obviously pretty glam.  Any other tips on packing?  Also, I want to bring my wide brim hat and look like Sophia Loren but how do I keep it from getting crushed on the plane?  And more importantly, how do I keep my fake mole from melting in the heat?