Peace Out, 4th Term!

I've been home a little over 2 weeks and honestly am not sure where time has gone! Life has been busy, but a fun busy! I've been running all over doing last minute wedding stuff- dotting our Is and crossing our Ts. Thankfully, we got SO much help from family here on the home front while we were gone that although I feel like I have been doing a lot non-stop- really, there was not too much left that needed to be done :) We are SO appreciative of all the help because it has allowed this process to stay fun and relatively free of stress!

The final missing piece to the puzzle lands in the U.S in a few short hours!!! YES, Nick has OFFICIALLY completed 4th term and I could not be more proud! Now, I say this each term and after each test (and genuinely mean it each time because he amazes me) but let me tell you... 4th term, was hard. It was draining. It was exhausting. It was stressful. It was consumed by Pathology, with several other classes also demanding attention as well. It was long. And Nick handled it like a freakin' champ and now I get to brag on him a bit :) He ran on just a few hours of sleep each night and endured 12+ hour days filled with class, followed by lab, further followed by hours of studying... for 5 months straight. Yet, through it all he still managed to come home with a smile on his face more days than not. Still managed to leave his stress from studying at the door more days than not. Still would surprise me with help around the house whenever he could. And still sent me sweet messages on Skype, when the days got long and we were hardly seeing each other. Annnnnddd, on top of all that, he ROCKED Pathology, a 13 credit, hard as can be class. He's a rock star. And probably not going to be a fan of all my bragging about him... but it's deserved, and I am allowed :)

Tomorrow starts wedding week! And I am so excited to have him home to be a part of it! I love how excited he is and how much he likes to be involved :) Nothing sounds better than a week of pre-wedding last minute things in front of Christmas movies with my favorite guy, family, and closest friends!

Good riddance 4th term! I'll GLADLY take my student back now :) So proud of Nick and all of my 4th term friends and their SOs for surviving this beast of a term!

Social Work Exam- CHECK!

I most definitely have some major catching up to do. For starters, as I've mentioned, the reason for my lack of blogging and fun recently has been due to studying for my Social Work Board exam. I've heard over and over again about what a tough exam it is and the practice tests I took definitely had me studying EXTRA hard out of fear of failing. Well, all the hours put in on campus and all the hours and days spent bummin' because I had to miss out on Limes and time with kids paid off because... I PASSED!!!!! There are no words to describe my relief and excitement! It is obviously so rewarding and nice to see all my hard work pay off, but even more than that, I am just beyond happy that I don't have to split or sacrifice time with the Limes babies next term... it was such a sacrifice for me to do this term, and I often felt distanced by others when my attendance started to dwindle that it really made for a couple of rough months and so when I saw I had passed I literally got to my car and cried. All the stress, hard work, and sacrifices had paid off... not to mention, it was the hardest exam of my life, so I was down right just proud to have passed! SO yes, just a huge relief and SO looking forward to being able to soak up tons of kiddo time during our final term in Grenada starting in January :)

Social Work licensure is strange in that, in order to be fully licensed in Michigan (currently I have my temporary license, which is good for 6 years) you need to pass the ASWB board exam and work 2 years PAID full time. It's so interesting and odd to me that what they require as a requisit for "doing social work" is a paycheck. Some of the best and most valuable social work I have done in my life has been in Grenada through different things and I am NOT receiving a paycheck to do it. I don't know, maybe I am the only who thinks it is weird, but I do. It doesn't matter, because I have all the hard parts done for my licensure, and will complete my 2 years well before my 6 years is up, but still... when it comes to Social Work- it's funny to me that something like a paycheck is what they deem the greatest factor in determining whether you have experience or not.

A highlight in the final weeks before I left Grenada was in thanks to two of my lovely friends in Grenada- Jessica and Desiree who put together a Grenadian Bachelorette Party for me!! It was so much fun and so sweet of them to do! We went on a sunset boat cruise, played some games, enjoyed some drinks, and had a full boat dance party- the bonus to having an entire catamaraan to ourselves! It was perfect! I am so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful friends in Grenada, they definitely know how to make a girl feel special! It was especially fun because I had been oddly MIA from activities in the last month and half leading up to the party due to studying my butt off, so it was really nice to see them and I definitely appreciated everyone for coming out!!!

Thanksgiving in Grenada

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It always has been. Growing up Thanksgiving was marked by waking up extremely early (or so it seemed to me- I've never been a morning person a day in my life) and heading downtown to meet up with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins to go to the Thanksgiving Day Parade. We'd all meet at big boy and eat lots of yummy breakfast before putting a million layers of clothing and bracing ourselves to fight for a close spot on the street for the parade. Thanksgiving morning always seemed to be one of the coldest Michigan days of the year, but we were armed with hats, gloves, hand warmers, boots, and everything else my parents wisely thought to bring to keep young kids happy (ish)... in -0 temperatures, said kids may have just been crying, cold, handfuls... But, when we were super young we got the perks of having a really tall dad and got a shoulder view, and when we got a little older, we had the fun of weaseling through the crowds, and pushing aside other people to successful get to the street side- in perfect position to high five the parade people, snag some candy, and of course see Santa. It was the best!

As we got older we stopped going to the parade but still the days were marked by other things I loved. No school. Family. Lions football. And lots and lots of food. Who wouldn't love a day filled with those things?

I also love the sentiment surrounding Thanksgiving. I love that this time of year forces us all to focus our attention on what we are thankful for and the many blessings we have in life. It's so easy to get caught up in stress and negativity that it such a nice, and heartwarming change. 

That brings me to this Thanksgiving. My first Thanksgiving away from home EVER. My first Thanksgiving not surrounded by tons of family members. Not curled up watching the Lions game on a real TV. Not picking an outfit that will allow me to over-eat all the delicious Thanksgiving food. Instead, we are here in Grenada, where if it weren't for Facebook updates telling me it is indeed Thanksgiving, I'd never know it. I woke up hot to sun beating in the window. Nick left for classes somewhere around 7:15. And my agenda basically consisted of heading to campus to study with the Lions game on in the background. All in all, it was just a pretty normal day here on the island.

However, whether it feels like Thanksgiving or not, I have SO much to be extra thankful for this year.  I of course am thankful for family, friends, health, opportunity, and adventures of all kinds. In addition to the normal blessings, this year I am thankful for the opportunity to be in Grenada and for Nick to have the opportunity to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor. I am thankful for the life- changing experience of living on this island, which opens my eyes to the importance of the small things in life and where the children warm my heart unconditionally. Although we may yearn for home and to be surrounded with family and friends, there is no denying that Grenada will always be like a second home to us and will always hold a super special place in our hearts.

For a couple of weeks I had been planning on trying to cook us something "Thanksgiving-ish" for today without breaking the bank as the cost of Turkey here can be pricey and without taking too much time away from studying. But then a wonderful opportunity presented itself. Several of the volunteers who work with Limes have put together a fundraiser to help send one of our little girls (Kylie) and her mom to the States so that Kylie can have brain surgery.  Kylie was diagnosed with a tumor and needs to have a shunt put in and while it has been arranged for the surgery to be done pro-bono and her mom will be able to stay at Ronald McDonald House for free, the flights to get them there are not cheap. So of course, our wonderful Limes coordinators put their heads together and came up with an excellent idea of offering a hot, home cooked Thanksgiving meal, on campus! Boy, was it a success! They sold out of all their food in under 10 minutes!! Needless to say, although we did not make it there quick enough to snag a plate, the over-all goal was to help Kylie and they certainly accomplished that! She's such a sweet baby, and so so loved by so many of the volunteers, and it was great to see so many people pull together and help and support her! One of the downsides to studying for my test is that I feel much less able to help with things like this, but my heart is so happy seeing all the hard work of fellow SOs pay off.

And, with some help from some friends, I was able to toss together some mashed potatoes which allowed us entry into a Thanksgiving dinner later on, so we still got our Thanksgiving meal :) 

All in all, a pretty successful Thanksgiving if I do say so myself!

Slacker blogger award

Time is passing SO quickly these days, I can't even believe it!

Life update since my blogging has been less than stellar... Nick survived the second round of exams and once again did awesome! He successfully completed Microbiology and is happy to check yet another class off the list! There is no doubt that the past 7 weeks were the hardest in medical school. They were unbelievably exhausting, but all the hard work and lack of sleep paid off :) I am extremely proud! Since Microbiology is officially done, he has started Nutrition as a replacement, but compared to Micro, it is much easier and so the trade was welcomed with open arms! Nutrition is only a 1 credit class that he has for 2 weeks (his final is already on Monday) and then is done and he will only have Pathology and CPD for the remainder of the term. Although the term is not over yet, and finals promise to be hard as always, I think we can officially say there is a small light at the end of the tunnel!!

Lots of beautiful sunsets these days!!! Since we've both been studying on campus, we've been enjoying dinner in front of them almost every night!!!  I sure don't hate it!

In other news: Nick's parents came to visit, so we had a blast doing some fun things and Nick was able to break away from studying to hang out with them more than we expected, which was great! There was lots of beach time and just hanging out, and the highlight of the trip was easily deep sea fishing! We've been before but did not catch anything so we were excited to go again and try our luck... and this time caught SEVEN FISH! It was SO awesome! All in all we caught 1 Tuna, 2 Rainbow Runners, and 4 Barracuda! This was my first time catching anything ever deep sea fishing so I was pumped! Having visitors is always so nice, especially when you haven't seen anyone from home in 5 months!!!!

Showin' all those fish what is up... Yeah.. wasn't expecting to be handed a slimy fishy though!

Otherwise, life has been a little more boring for me. I haven't been able to go to Limes much at all the past couple of weeks because I have been on house arrest studying for my board exam (that I take in only 20 days... eeek!) It makes me sad to miss out on Limes and definitely makes me realize how much those Limes children have made my life here as great as it is... but unfortunately, for now, studying has to be main priority. Still bums me out though. I miss those kids SO much and am hoping to get there at least a couple times before I leave to head home in 2 weeks!

And lastly, wedding planning is coming along amazingly!! I still love it and enjoy every minute of it! Definitely starting to feel the crunch a little bit (37!!! days!!) and can not wait to be home and more hands on in the getting ready process! Thank goodness for so many people at home helping with calls, setting appointments, and doing a lot of the leg work for us because otherwise this whole planning thing would not have been possible! All in all too, I think we are really on top of things, and everything should continue to run smoothly (Mom, don't think about the number of days left!) Reality that it is so close still has not completely hit me though because the weather here makes me feel like it is still a couple months away, but we are really excited and looking forward to it! It is the perfect way to end this crazy term!

FINALLY got to see our invitation in person!!! You can't even imagine my excitement!!!!

Medical school student in da house!

I've mentioned before that Nick is currently taking a class commonly referred to as CPD, which stands for Communication Skills and Physical Diagnosis.  This class is interesting because it actually allows the students to start learning and practicing basic physical exams, assessments, and evaluations on each other and (paid actor) patients..... and in our case... Nick gets to practice on me.

For the past several evenings Nick has come home from studying on campus a couple hours early, and our house has turned into Dr. Leo's medical office. He runs through these general assessments- obtaining vital signs (blood pressure, pulse, respiration, temperature), checks for jugular venous pressure and pulsation, checks peripheral vascular system (using tests such as: Allen’s test, Buerger’s test, a manual compression test,  Pratt test and Homan sign), does examinations on the ear, nose, and sinuses (using tests such as the Whisper test and sinus transillumination).... you get the idea. Lots of fun, real life doctor stuff- with real doctor tools. He continues to impress me with his ever growing knowledge and seeing him apply it is fun... plus, it appears that according to these tests, other than needing stronger contact lenses (sad day when you fail a vision test that is supposed to just be for practice) I appear to be healthy and regularly functioning!

So, while seeing him act all professional is all super fun and cute, when he announced he was coming home to test out some skills on me the other night- more specifically the ears/nose/throat skills, I was a little less than enthused... see, I am currently battling a cold. Awesome. It's already a little weird to spend my night having my fiance looking up my nose or in my ears- let alone on a night when I am a bit under the weather... But, he is going to be quizzed on these assessments soon, so in true medical school spirit, the exams went on! Weird or not, a passing grade is definitely more important than him not being prepared due to the possibility of wax in my ears or boogers in my nose.

Yep, getting married to a doctor-in-training sure is a romantic.

Operation Grenada Child- Bringing Santa to Grenada

"There is a spirit in the world of generosity- 

That brings good things to all of us, whoever we may be

 So I believe in Santa Claus, for it can't be denied- That he is generosity personified.

 Yes, there is a Santa Claus for children everywhere- 

Though you may watch the chimney tops and never see him there.

People say his magic sleigh flies in the sky above- 

But you might find it anywhere you find unselfish love.

Oh, yes, he really does exist- And Santa Claus will live!

As long as hearts can realize- How good it feels to give.

So when you are feeling blue- Keep up your hopes, because...

 If there is kindness in this world- There is a Santa Claus!"

-Martha Cratchit, in "The Stingiest Man in Town" 

Childhood memories at Christmas are really hard to remember without Santa. We would write him letters asking for the newest and coolest toy, doll, tamagotchi, or whatever the must-have item of the year was that was coming out. And if our minds changed before Christmas- the panic that Santa might not know, lead to another URGENT letter being sent to clarify the new request.

But imagine, growing up, and from as young as 2-3 years old not having a Santa. Not having that excitement each Christmas morning, and not getting presents- big or small.  That's how the memories of Christmas are for many of the Children here in Grenada. When we talk to them about Christmas, there is very little mention of Santa, or presents, or anything that most of us, as children, associated with Christmas. I was actually talking to one of the "older" girls about how I was getting married at Christmastime and so I would be going home to Michigan to celebrate the holiday with my family and little brothers. She immediately asked how only my brothers were and when I told her they were just a little younger than her, she responded "that's good you are going to see them, Miss, ... Santa doesn't come here." I could have cried and honestly didn't even really know how to respond.

While the purpose of Christmas is not about gifts, how do you explain to a 9 year old that Santa and presents happen to some children throughout the world and not others? And although she didn't seem overly sad and it is a normal thing to her, it was the vast line that was drawn between her and children (like my brothers) at her age that really killed me. I hate how grown up and aware of discrepancies they are at 8,9,10 years old. And I hate that some kids get presents and some don't.

However, this year some SGU SOs- both here in Grenada and those already back in the States, have decided to make sure that Santa does indeed visit Grenada this Christmas. They have started a project called "Operation Grenada Child." The idea is a simple one. For $20 or less, you can create a shoebox that will be shipped to Grenada for a Limes child. It doesn't have to be anything super fancy, these kids get excited over simple things like pencil sharpeners! If you don't personally want to shop for the gifts, there is also the option to assist with shipping the boxes to Grenada- which is equally as helpful as the shoe-boxes themselves.

For more information, or to sign up to send a box follow THIS LINK.

Thanks for helping us put smiles on these sweet children's faces!  

And in the words of Tiny Tim... "God bless us, every one"

Long over-do for an update!

Yikes! I've been a major slacker on the blogging lately!

Honestly, that is because 4th term is the same thing just about every day. Nick continues to leave around 7:30am each day and returns somewhere between 10-midnight. It's busy. It's stressful. It's exhausting. It's all work, and no play. His next set of exams are in a couple weeks, so send him extra positive vibes as the intensity is upped (if that is even possible) over these next couple weeks :)

As for me, I've also pretty much gone into hibernation mode. My days pretty much consist of the normal house chores, wedding planning, and studying for my board exam. With my board exam right around the corner, I've sadly started to have to prioritize my time a bit differently. I still volunteer a couple days a week, but not every day. Although being with the kids is A LOT more fun and honestly a lot more hands on social working experience... this girl needs to pass the multiple choice board exam in December! Wish me luck... I will be needing it. After a year off from school, I have become the worst student ever. I'd rather watch paint dry than hammer out over this material all day. But, I am slowly getting back into a groove.

A few fun things from the past week or so:
IEA (the school's honor society) put on a dodge ball tournament 2 Friday's ago, and Nick's football team played in it. It was really fun and SO great to see them all letting loose... and not to mention relieving some stress by hurling balls at the other teams head for several hours! His team did awesome and made it all the way to the finals, but unfortunately could not pull off the championship win. Still all in all a great night! It was awesome to see Nick out there having such a good time, and to actually get to see him/spend a little time with him for the first time in several weeks!

Two of our volunteers, Miss Taylor and Miss Katie, at LIMES used to be cheerleaders, so they brushed off their cheer-leading caps and introduced the Limes kids to cheering! One day was spent making pom-poms, which was so much fun! They made them by cutting up garbage bags, which I thought was so creative! The kids absolutely loved it and were so focused and serious about making them. The next day Taylor and Katie taught them a cheer that they performed at the end of class. Talk about cuteness! All the girls (plus Jade) got so into it... these kids crack me up!

Was chatting with Jada at Limes last week and she holds my hand and says "Miss, yo hands big." I responded with something like "yep, they sure are big next to your little ones aren't they?" To which she said, "No. They aren't big next to mine. They are big to hold onto mine." You couldn't be more right Jada- girl, that is exactly why my hands are so big  :) It's little moment like those that just absolutely melt my heart and make my entire week!

Although our internet has been strugglin' really hardcore recently, I've still been able to stream all the exciting sports games :) Both Nick and I have been proudly wearing our Detroit gear and our neighbors wonder who the crazy girl is screaming at her computer for every Tigers baseball game and Lions football game. Man, Detroit sports sure like to make their fans sweat! Needless to say, took a lengthy study break yesterday to watch both the Lions and Tigers bring home victories :)

And just because they have been so beautiful, here are a few pictures of sunsets recently!