candice says the end of the world is coming because she got married!!!

okay, so if you know my friend candice, then you know that this wedding was a huge celebration:) she had to go through quite a bit of bad ones to get to her prince charming, but God definitely was faithful, as always and proved to all of us that having faith and waiting on His perfect timing is well worth it. she went on a mission trip to belize and on the last day began a relationship with the man she will now spend the rest of her life with... God had a plan the whole time. enjoy the pictures!

CONGRATULATIONS CANDICE AND TODD!!!

a busy wedding season for this girl

so, 2010 has been the year of weddings:) don't get me wrong, i am not complaining, but wow it is busy! when it is all over i will have been a bridesmaid three times and a small part in another:) let's see if i can give you a quick run down (just for fun): 8 bachelorette/lingerie parties, 3 couples showers, 4 miscellaneous showers, 1 bachellorette cruise, and 2 dinner showers... 8 weddings in one year:) so the next few posts are dedicated to my beautiful friends and their weddings and all the fun we have been having.

imagine yours truly with a dog

So, this week, I have taken on a new challenge of keeping my friend kasey’s little yorkie, Dixie. Dixie is absolutely the easiest dog in the world. I mean, basically, she sleeps, eats, needs to be taken out a few times a day, and needs some loving and attention… do all these things, and you are golden… but I thought I’d provide you all with a few laughs, as I am so not used to dogs in my house and probably did a few things dixie’s mom doesn’t do, haha.

So, one of the main reasons why I was able to take care of Dixie this week is because I am in town and do not have any visits. Today was my first full day with her, and I think I took her out every two hours, haha. My mom informed me that was too much, but I say there is never too much when you are taking care of an animal that may have an accident in your house. (Note: If she did, I would be totally fine, but I don’t see anything wrong with trying to prevent one.) Our community does not have the little doggie “poo” trash bags, so I’ve been using my old grocery bags = those things come in good use. I’ve picked up more poo in the past 36 hours than ever in my life, haha.

So, Kasey said to leave Dixie in a confined area with her food and water close by (when I left the house), so tonight I had bible study and I was going to the gym afterwards. So, I laid a blanket over the couch, put her on the couch, and then put her food and water on the coffee table, right up against the couch… looked like a perfect setup to me. You see… I don’t have any closed off areas downstairs, I don’t have a doggie/baby gate, all the upstairs is carpeted, and I didn’t want to leave her in a room with a door shut. I even left the TV on for her, so she could watch So You Think You Can Dance, haha. I came home to a cute little dog quite comfy on the couch and she had eaten some of her food and had some water, all worked out well.

Today, I wanted to get out of the house for a minute, and not look at reports or training, so we took a little walk down my road, she is too cute. Who knew my neighborhood had so many people with dogs, haha.

I’ll update more later, if I have any interesting stories of my week with a dog.

my coordinators in salisbury, md are a-mazing

so, with all this change coming to quintiles (they are trying to make all the monitor more localized to a specific region) i am losing pretty much all of my sites that i have developed relationships with. i am very sad about this, because i value the relationships i form at my sites. if you develop relationships with your coordinators, they want to do things for you, when you ask them, and it makes my trips much more enjoyable if i am going to visit coordinators that are easy to work with. sometimes, i get really lucky and the coordinators and i get along so well that we go out to dinner, we talk about our personal lives, and becomes friends - that is what i have found in salisbury, md!!!

i told my coordinators in salisbury, md (erica, megan, kathy, and christina) at the last visit that this visit would probably be my last (i am still holding out hope, that maybe it won't be), so we all planned to go out to dinner. we went to market st to eat tonight and i enjoyed my last dinner with them. the last time i was here, we all went to texas roadhouse. i am going to miss coming to this site and hearing stories about erica's adorable children, megan's pregnancy, crazy kathy fiddler, and joking around with them in general. they actually made traveling not seem so bad. i hope the new monitor appreciates what a great site they are getting.

a saduko partner, a very hot guy at 6 am

it is amazing how many interesting people i meet on the plane. last thursday i was on my way home from a site visit in connecticut and an older gentleman sat down beside of me. we started chatting, and he mentioned the church he attends in charlotte. i told him that i actually visited that church first when i moved to charlotte. somehow we ended doing a saduko puzzle together - it was hilarious. would you believe that we could not figure out the easiest one without a little assistance, haha.

i also met a very cute guy a few weeks back from charlotte on his way to san francisco. we had some great conversation, and talked about our walks with God and i am here to tell you, if i could see him again, it would be a-mazing. too bad when we landed in atlanta, i was in such a hurry. i had to take off running to make my connection to panama city.

sometimes i meet the most amazing people on planes, other times i meet annoying, smelling people. my travel experiences are definitely interesting.

a slit that kept growing

so, two weeks ago i was running a little late heading to the airport, the weather was not on my side either... it was pouring rain. i arrive at business valet approximately 57 minutes before my flight, yikes. i step out and the little lady is new = not good. but when i go to step out, my skirt that originally had a 1.5 inch slit, now has a 5 inch slit = holy cow, what in the world do you do. i had no time to turn around and go home, i seriously was so mortified. i immediately put my purse in front of my skirt and carried on. i searched in every store in the airport for an emergency sewing kit or safety pin, but what was i thinking, that would be considered a weapon... no go. the charlotte airport doesn't sell clothing, so i am starting to panic. then, i remember that the philly airport has an airport mall, and i am connecting there. so, when i land, i run to gap. i ask the nice lady in there for a size 8, black skirt immediately. i put it on, and walk out with the tags ripped off. she says, "are you flexible?" the sensor is still on my skirt... i have like 1o minutes to make it to my gate (through two terminals) and i have to jump up on the counter to get the sensor off the skirt. i pay and off i go. they actually paged me, last boarding call - so i just barely made it. what a day.

to make the day even more interesting, two of my friends had an engagement party i was trying to get back to that evening, and i got delayed in philly on the way home and didn't make it:( so much fun traveling i tell you.

6 hours worth of delays and i've been in three states in one day

so, last night i decided that i would try this whole carry on luggage thing and not check my bag. i'm thinking this can't be that hard, but oh my was it ever! i mean, it is nearly impossible for me to cram all my liquid items in a one quart bag (i left my shampoo/conditioner/body wash at home) and still my ziploc baggie is popping open, haha. i bought some no name hairspray and the smallest shaving cream known to man, put my facewash in a tiny little bottle, my perfume is in a tiny little tube, my concealer, mascara, face lotion, benzyl peroxide, and toothpaste had to come...how does it all fit. somehow i managed. probably won't be doing this again, just saying.

so, my day started around 5:20 am. i get to the airport this morning and my first flight from charlotte to bradley (hartford) left relatively close to on time and then i went to my site. it was located in downtown manchester, connecticut. i couldn't find anywhere to park, except main street (a downtown area) and there were signs that read, "free parking, two hours." i was thinking i am not sure how long i will be at my site, but probably not much longer than two hours due to the fact that i had to get back to the airport. i went to my visit, in which, the SC then watched me monitor (very strange) and hardly had anything entered into our electronic data capture system, but still managed to get finished in about 3 hours. i walk down and get in my car and realize about a minute down the road, that i have a parking ticket. the CT police have given me a $10 parking ticket!

i head to the airport to catch my flight to philly to get to salisbury, and all the fun begins. my flight was delayed 2 hours. we finally board the plane and i immediately fall asleep. i sleep through some of the drama, but i wake up after we have been on the plane for an hour and realize that we are still near the gate, we haven't even pushed back, FUN, not. the pilot says, the ground stop has been lifted, so we are clear, we are going to push back and get out of here ASAP, air traffic control has given us a time of wheels up at 6:15pm. (note: original flight should have left at 3:40pm, then the first delay was 5:00pm). so, we taxi out and we are like next in line to take off, and the pilot comes over the intercom and says, bad news: another ground stop in philly, at least an hour delay... so we go nowhere. so, around 7:15 we finally take off and land in philly at 8pm, whew, four hours of delays, not fun.

when i landed in philly, i get off the plane and realize that my salisbury, md flight left me. i am hoping and about to go into some serious prayer that there will be another flight to salisbury tonight. luckily there is an 8:50pm. the us airways staff was not very helpful to me, but i am an old pro, so it didn't stress me out that much. then we get on the plane for salisbury and that flight wasn't necessarily delayed, but traffic was backed up so we waited forever to take off.

when i landed in salisbury, finally, i realized that the heartz representative decided she was tired of waiting on me, how kind. avis only had one car left so i took it.

i am super tired now, finally i am at my hotel. goodnight folks.