Good-Bye March and Hello April

March has been a long month for us! I think it is because we are so eager to go home. Just 2 1/2 weeks now! I CAN'T WAIT!

I have worked about 2 1/2 weeks now full time for the Dean of Research here at Ross. We have a great team and I think I'm going to really enjoy my little island job. Andrew is finishing he classes strong and looking forward to next semester. But before next semester comes we first get to come home and back to reality (this whole island thing just doesn’t seem real sometimes...)!

Make fun all you want but we have compiled a list of activities for when we are home. These fore mentioned activities consist of eating, shopping, target going, couch laying, TV watching, horse playing, dog petting, family spending, friend hugging good times. None of these are to do be in any said order per se but eating will consume a large amount of our time. Along with our activities list we have devised a strategic plan to optimize our time at home. We will have exactly 16 full days back in North Carolina. 8 days will be spent between Raleigh and Morehead City and the other 8 will be in Lexington - this way we get equal time with both families, how perfect! Oh and we are also able to cross off a several food venues.

A strategic plan will first consist of my parents picking us from the airport on Wednesday night, late, like 10 pm. This however, will not stop us from making a late night CookOut run for a couple of sweet teas and a CookOut Tray for Andrew. Oh and I'm sure my parents will bring Duke along for the ride because as Dad likes to say "It's a Family Outing, Duke should be there".... Don't worry I won't give you a play by play I will just highlight the good stuff! Thursday I wake up early and go see my sweet Sissy girl and spoil her lots of love and carrots; oh and Will can have a few carrots too! After I get my horse playin' in we will meet our friends for in down town Raleigh for dinner. We figured it was the easiest way to see everyone! Friday morning we will head down to Morehead City for some good ole North Carolina Coastal livin'! Here we will eat, boat, fish, shop, and just enjoy each other’s company!! After a nice long weekend we will head back to Raleigh for more Sissy and Will time, target browsing, couch laying, and TV watching, oh I forgot eating, yes of course always more eating.

We will wrap up a final few days in Raleigh doing what we love and then head on down to Lexington, where people claim to have red-neck dogs...true story...as if the owners weren't already....

Here we will spend time with family, ride a few horses, muck a few stalls, mend a few fences, and my favorite, chit-chat late into the night. Maybe we will even have another bonfire and shoot a few Skeet! Andrew's parents will even be having a horse show the Saturday that we are home! YAY! Saddle up - It's Cuttin' Time!

And when our two weeks of home are over we will head back to St. Kitts. I know our hearts and our bellies will be full.

Our List of Food Places...Don't Judge...

Raleigh List:

1. Dos Taquitos Centro
2. Bojangles (For Andrew)
3. Chik-fil-a
4. Carrabba's
5. Tuscan Blue
6. PF Changs
7. The Draft House
8. Mellow Mushroom
9. Cooney Island
10. Schlotzsky's
11. Moe's
12. Mom D's Apple Pie (please!)
13. MT. DEW
14. SWEET TEA

Morehead City list:

1. Beach Bums
2. Smithfields - Sweet Tea
3. Circa 81
4. Poppa Duke's cooking
5. El's Drive In
6. Fish Tales
7. Jersey Mikes
8. Coldstone
9. MT. DEW

Lexington List:

1. Mom C's Home Cooking
2. Ricks     
3. Biscuit King
4. Mr. Gatti's
5. Hunan
6. Macaroni Salad (fingers crossed)
7. Zaxbys
8. The Village
9. MT. DEW
10. SWEET TEA
    
11. We realize that will we have to prioritize.....

Back Where We Come From

Rebekah!

Love my ponies!

What a Stud! (no, really he is riding Stud)

Skeet Skeet

A day in the life of Duke

Ask and you shall Receive

My goodness March is upon us already! And boy did March bring several good things along with it...

Over the last several weeks, well I guess since we got here! many prayers are been lifted up for many different things. And my how God works in such special ways to answer our prayers. Like when Andrew was doing the whole vet school application process I prayed for an adventure...boy did I get one big adventure. Though nervous about the adventure to St. Kitts I knew God wouldn't have given us such a big adventure if we couldn't handle it. It has been hard at times but He has continued to answer our prayers, both big and small. Though overwhelming, many prayers were answered this past week....

We started off our week with finally deciding where we will be living next semester and hopefully for the remainder of our time here. We picked this awesome house up in Fort Tyson Rise. We overlook the Atlantic but can also see the Caribbean! Hopefully our back porch will be the prime location for all of the whale watching I intend to do. Apparently a few were spotted last week but I clearly did not see them! Our house has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, large kitchen, fenced in yard for Duke, and a sweet little swimming pool! Our new home will be shared with Leann and Brayton Hill. They are simply an amazing couple and we can't wait to share in all of these wonderful vet school adventures together. Brayton is the student and Leann the spouse which is just perfect! They are in their second semester down here and are enjoying it. Leann is a teacher at the Prep School on campus and teaches 1st and 2nd grades. They are from New York and were married down in the Outer Banks last summer - AMAZING! We are truly excited for this next chapter and are very blessed to have made such great friends.

What's next? Oh yes! We test drove a few cars last week and settled on the cutest little blue SUV - wanna be. I say wanna be because it is truly a very tiny little SUV, but it is a perfect little island car for us! And Andrew turns out to be quite the haggler too! Andrew talked him down $1500, which is good for an island car. The steering wheel is on the opposite side, which is taking me some getting use to.  Andrew is a pro, of course. Oh the little blue car has this little mirror on the hood that looks like a snorkel, funny. Another funny aspect about looking for vehicles down here is that the superficial things didn't matter at all to us like they would back in the States.  We didn't care about color, interior, features, dents, etc none of that mattered! All that mattered was reliability and if our potential little island car would make it up certain hills; funny how those things change.  We were both very nervous to purchase the car. It was the first time either one of us had made a purchase that large, especially without our parents, but we did just fine. We drove our little island car to the grocery Saturday morning and then took her to the beach that afternoon. It's funny though, we both keep expecting something to break or for her not to turn on! We are told with island cars "it's not if they break, it's when they break!" - Oh boy! But we talk sweetly to her and cross our fingers that she behaves!

The grand news of the week, especially for me, is that I was offered a job last week working for the Research department at Ross U. How cool is that??!! I'm over the moon about it. I think it will be a perfect fit for me while I'm down here and will only help mold me for a career in research. I will speak to HR this week to confirm the details. It truly was a God send and I am blessed with an incredible opportunity that will open many doors.

Aside from the amazing job opportunity, I have also been asked to join a research team here at the university. The project is out of this world and truly the neatest thing! I have a strong interest in reproductive physiology and plan on going for PhD when I've finished my masters. I don't know exactly what area of reproduction but I think something with horses or pigs ( I do love pigs!) But this oh so incredible research project will be dealing with lionesses in Zimbabwe! Now I have no promises of going to Zimbabwe, which is fine, but I would go tomorrow given the chance! For me the privilege is to work on this project and be a part of so many aspects. To be on a published paper would be absolutely phenomenal! Oh I'm getting excited just writing about it! And I get to work with some pretty incredible and brilliant people that I know I can learn a lot from!

Now Dad! Don't go getting worried about grad school! I am doing awesome! And plus I do much better when I have more on my plate! Ask and you shall Receive....

View from our back porch - Atlantic Side

Caribbean Side

More Atlantic - Where I plan to see my whales

Our little blue island car

See the Snorkel?