So, one drawback of having a destination wedding was that many of our friends and family couldn´t come. However, on the plus side, my in-laws were kind enough to host a wedding reception for us in their hometown of Towanda, Illinois on July 5th. Jon has a large family and only one of his…
There are lots of things about getting older that aren’t so pleasant. For one thing, you have to go to work every day, which is much less fun than sitting through a day of classes with your friends, no matter how much my seventh graders complain about how miserable their lives are to me. For another,…
You may not have known this, but up until July 1st, 2014, Jon and I were not legally married. Our ceremony in Mexico was strictly symbolic due to the fact that we didn’t want to pay the resort fee to make it official; nor did we want a Mexican marriage certificate. Instead, we gave Jim…
One of the most difficult things about choosing to live your life abroad is that the world of international teaching is extremely transient. People come and go. For brief periods of time these people become your family, and it is extremely sad to watch your family get smaller and smaller as time goes on. Three…
The venerable Buddha once said, “holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone. You are the one who gets burned.” If this is true, then this blog entry is my attempt to release the coal before I go up in flames. Anger is a…
So, it´s been about a year now since I was officially diagnosed as being in remission from cancer. Which, of course, is a joyous statement, but also a nerve-racking one as well. Recently I have spent many a moment contemplating this milestone and wondering if everything is still okay. I´m back into the swing of…
During our weeklong wedding vacation in Cancun, Mexico, my father in law wisely said to me that life is a constant cycle of anticipating big events, living off the memories of those big events, and anticipating more events in the future. I find this statement to be incredibly true, especially when applied to weddings. You…
Rio de Janeiro. Just the name of it conjures up images of an exotic beachfront, surrounded by an iconic landscape and a city filled with fun-loving people. I have wanted to go to Rio since I was very young and heard about a little party they like to call Carnival. Unfortunately Carnival this year is…
Last week Jon and I officially began our summer break. Having spent my formative years in the northern hemisphere, it seems strange to crank up the barbeque and watch the temperatures soar into the upper 90s around the same time that Dear Ole St. Nick readies his reindeer and sled for his round the world…
Here I am, day two of hospital stay, and I am extremely anxious to leave. My doctors are at loggerheads as to whether or not I actually have an infection. My older, Chilean, plastic surgeon thinks that I do and is very adamant that I stay here. Dr. Buhler (my savior) has visited me…
The Luckiest Unlucky Girl 