Good Craic!

Last week I went to Philadelphia to see our friend JohnO who was visiting from Ireland!

>>To catch some people up, I met JohnO while studying abroad in Ireland, then he lived with my roommate and I during the summer of '04 when Ryan and I met...thus making the three of us (well, really the four of us with Cameron) really good friends. JohnO returned to Boston in the summer of '05 for our wedding, where he was a reader, pronouncing every "you" with a good Irish "ye".<<

We thought Ryan was going to be recording for the week in LA, so we didn't buy him a plane ticket...However, it turned out he didn't have to go to LA, but it was too late to buy a ticket by the time we found that out. He had a great time hanging out with his guy friends at home though. :)

We took a bus tour around Philly and saw all the major sites.
Our first stop was the Betsy Ross, where I had done a service project for MLK weekend in college...


Chinatown...


LOVE...(look for the red letters behind the trees)


St. Peter and Paul...


The Franklin Institute...a great hands-on museum...JohnO seeing if he can lift his own body weight...he did it!


We also went to Lancaster County, Amish Country. I'm fascinated by the Amish, so I loved going and learning more about their culture. We did a tour of an Amish home, and also watched a movie on a boy of age (16) making his decision about whether or not he would choose to remain in the faith. The Amish are currently retaining about 90% of their youth a year! The Amish can use rollerblades and scooters to get around, in addition to horse and buggies, however they cannot use bikes because bikes would allow them to get too far from home. I was a bit disappointed to find that most Amish families now use Pampers instead of cloth diapers, and even wear manufactured sweaters, but I guess they needed to find some short-cuts when their lives are otherwise quite laborious.







We stopped in a little village that sold Amish goods. Here's Lisa sampling some jam...of course we had to sample everything in the store! :)


Lisa, Arnold, and Megan, friends of JohnO's from Ireland who are missionaries for CrossWorld in Philadelphia, and also who we stayed with...


Me and JohnO...


It was a great trip!

My journey home however was filled with adventures of another kind...both flights were delayed, which weren't too big of a deal because I was reading a good book, but then once I reached Tucson, our car died in the parking lot of the airport! :( We had to push the car through the gate so that we could pay without having to have the money add up while we waited. Hopefully gray beauty will be back working again soon!


Congrats to our friend Melanie and Devin who got married last weekend!

Liz and Charlene's Visit!

Hi! I'm going to pick up with where I left off on my last blog post...Liz and Charlene's visit...
We had a great time having them stay at our place for the week. Charlene is the easiest baby ever! She never cried, except for when she started teething on her last day here...and I think that warrants crying, she slept for 13 hours a night, and smiled while strangers held her!
Here are some photos from their visit...

We were all taking naps when Ryan got home...


An evening hike at Sabino Canyon...


Swimming at Grammie's...


Grammie insisted on babysitting while we swam...


Rachel (Ryan's half sister-on the left) and her friends were entertained by Charlene for hours!...


Ryan and Charlene played together for hours...


Liz and Charlene ready for the airport...


Charlene catching on that she is leaving AZ...


Charlene not happy about leaving...

Breakfast, Birthday, Babies...

Hello!

I hope everyone is enjoying summer! On the radio today the dj said "it's going to be a cool week with temperatures only reaching the upper 90s."...eeks...even though I've already survived one summer here, I'm still not ready for what June/July/August bring! Yesterday it was 102, and today is already much cooler, with a high of 'only' 94.

Ryan spent the morning at the dog park with Lily and Stanley, while I drove to Phoenix to pick up our friend Liz and her baby, Charlene! (I knew "babies" in the title would catch everyone's attention!) I'm having one...stay with me for the week that is. :)




Thanks for everyone who voted for RH to get into the Cornerstone Music Festival this summer in Bushnell, IL! They finished in 2nd place out of 230 bands, and will be performing on the new band stage on Friday, June 29 at 4:20pm, for anyone that will be there!

On Memorial Day, Ryan and I discovered/re-discovered (I had never been there/Ryan went on a field trip growing up) Augua Caliente. It's a beautiful park near where we live that has WATER!! Up until now, I thought NO place in Tucson had water...the "rivers" are dry washes, the water falls don't fall, and the only time you can see water is if you go to someone's pool, or during monsoon season. But this park has beautiful ponds and palm trees all over the place! We brought a picnic breakfast, read, and walked around the park for the morning before all the BBQ'ers rolled in.




On Monday, Grammie celebrated her 76th birthday! There was a huge surprise party for her at Bazil's, her best-friend's restaurant.

Mount Lemmon Take 2

Friday night, Erinstacy (friend from Boston that now lives in Phoenix), drove down to have a girl's night/ sleepover since Ryan was in LA recording! We made a great dinner and sat on the back patio for hours chit-chatting away.
Saturday morning we packed a picnic and drove up Mount Lemmon to go for a picnic and a hike. Our hike turned into more of a rock climbing adventure because we wanted to get what we were sure had to be the best view on the mountain...and I actually think it very well may be the best view...getting to and from the 'best view' though, is a wee bit challenging... :)

Destination...


View...


The climb down...



Survivors...

Block Party!

About a month ago I listened to a podcast sermon from the Vineyard (our church in Boston). The topic was on being a host, and even moreso, being a host to those you might not even know. During the sermon, they interviewed a woman from the church who had a party for her entire street (Clarendon Street) in Boston! That is a big feat because there are many apartment buildings with many people living in each building...she had over a hundred people attend, most of which she had never met before! And, it went so well that they have since had other get togethers since then.
(If you'd like to listen to the sermon, http://vcfcaudio.bostonvineyard.org/podcast/vcfgb-podcast.html it's the sermon from March 18th by Christopher Greco.)

This sermon really inspired me to want to get to know our neighbors more. Last night, we invited the neighbor kids over for pizza and to watch "Night at the Museum". Then, today we had a block party/brunch for everyone on our street...it was soo great! There were about 20 people who came, and most stayed to the end, or even past the stated "ending time". One of the woman on our street who has lived here for 30 years, said it was the first block party that the street has had in 28 years!

It was super easy to do, and a lot of fun. So, if you have neighbors that you haven't met...I'm encouraging you to throw a block party! :)
The neighbors who came are already scheming a street garage sale for later this summer, and a BBQ for the fall!

Our invitations...


The spread...


Some of the people...

Cinco de Mayo!

Last week I dog-sat for Lily and Stanley.


They are quite possibly two of the most spoiled dogs I've ever met. They only drink filtered or bottled water, they eat homemade organic casseroles (or, if they won't eat that, they go to Arby's for a roast beef sandwich), they have doggy car seats (which I'm actually an advocate of b/c it keeps the dogs from jumping around while you're driving), they go for a walk every morning and to the dog park every afternoon, Stanley has a stroller that he gets pushed in on walks b/c he has bad joints, they have more toys and play houses than most children I know...but, wouldn't you know, I've fallen for them and love dog-sitting!

Stanley at the dog park...


Lily in her car seat...


This past weekend, Melissa graduated!!! Her family came into town from San Francisco to celebrate with her at the commencement ceremony and her graduation party!


And, of course there was a full mariachi band present for the ceremony/cinco de mayo celebration! :)


On Sunday, I ran in a 'seis' de mayo 10k! I don't get it...all the places I run around my house are as flat as can be, but every single race I've done since moving out here is filled with hills! :) It was a beautiful run out near the western mountain range of Tucson.

Displace Me

Saturday afternoon I went up to Phoenix with some friends from church for "Displace Me". Displace Me events happened in major cities all over the country on April 28th; there were a total of 67,871 people across the country who participated, 1,700 of which were in Phoenix. The event was to spread awareness of what is going on in Northern Uganda. In 1996, many Ugandans were given 48 hours to seek refuge in displacement camps. They have now been there for over 10 years, living in horrible conditions and only getting little food and contaminated water. The conditions have been getting worse and worse and the rations smaller and smaller because of foreign aid being cut. "Displace Me" tried to simulate the experience of what it is like to live in a displacement camp. Participants were asked to bring enough cardboard to build themselves protection to sleep out over night, one box of saltines, and one 1.5 liter bottle of water. Upon checking in, I had to hand over my saltines and water, so that they could be later re-distributed during the night, and then I got to work building my shelter.

There was lots of creativity when it came to building shelters...


Our friends, Matt and Abby, building their home...Matt came with a plan of how he wanted to build it, but unfortunately didn't have as much cardboard as he had hoped for..


Throughout the night they would show a film clip of what is going on in Northern Uganda, and then they would direct us toward doing different things: writing a letter to our senator, writing a letter to the Ugandan President, taking 21 minutes of silence to represent the 21 years that this war has been going on, etc.
Here's the screen that they would show clips on..


In the morning, we woke up to African drummers and dancers...

Blue Skies

So, I've been home from Jamaica for 3 weeks now and I haven't been able to think of what to write to sum up my experience. I think the pictures probably do the best job of describing what it was like. I still don't how to reconcile the fact that I'm back in the united states living in our own house, with the opportunity to work and make money to buy food and other things that we need; While I now know so many in
Harmons, Jamaica that aren't given even those 'simple' opportunities. While I'm here in the U.S., I know that I can look around me and pour out that same kind of love to neighbors, friends, family, and strangers that live nearby and are needing in different ways.

My mom and dad were in Tucson visiting when I returned from Jamaica. Ryan picked me up from the airport and we drove home to eat my favorite meal by my mom on our back patio. Their visit was very relaxing and nice. We planted some produce in the garden (squash, zucchini, strawberries, cilantro and basil), we played card games, and we went out to some favorite restaurants. One afternoon, we drove up Mt. Lemon (it takes 45 minutes to get to the top from our house). It's a beautiful scenic drive and about 20 degrees cooler at the top (something you learn to love when you live in the dessert). We had a picnic along the way and then stopped at the famous pie shop at the top.





On Easter morning we participated in a sunrise service at our friend's ranch. It was a pretty magical way to start the day watching the sun rise over the mountains. Ryan played guitar for worship, and our friend Ben led the service. Afterwards, everyone joined in a potluck breakfast.