Once upon a time, I got married!!!

So 11 days after I got back from Belize and the day after I took my final I got married in the Washington DC Temple. I truly had the PERFECT wedding day!! Not one thing went wrong on my wedding day. It was perfect! It was beautiful outside and not too hot or humid, we were even early to the Temple, the ceremony was beautiful, and we had a blast taking pictures. Here's a few in case you haven't seen any:

Also, our amazing photographer has some of our pictures on her website. They are under her wedding pictures "Chris and Jennie" if you want to see them! She did an INCREDIBLE job!!

80's Flashback

So I was sitting in class the other day and I saw that one my classmates actually had a Trapper Keeper. Wow! I haven't seen one of these in ages! I didn't even know you could get these any more. Oh the memories. If you remember this blog or this one, these things keep happening. The 80's are coming back to haunt me, I swear. Ahhh!!

UnBelizeable!

Yes, they actually use corny phrase like these down there. haha So, I got some of the flooding pictures from the other MU group in Belize. Here's a brief glimpse (I have hundred of pics and video from the flooding) at what they got to do in Belize: When was the last time you saw the Coast Guard going down the road in a boat? Check out how high the water is on the windows in the background...and it's still raining This sucks. Oh look! A helicopter. Maybe they're coming to visit. Sorry, not so much. They were evacuated. Which is mostly good. This is why we couldn't go help with the relief effort even though we wanted to (the road to Gales Point, I believe).

But since they were evacuated, they got to come play with us at our super cool resort and because they are Marine Biology they had underwater cameras so we have lots and lots of blackmails pics now of us in the freakin' sweet pools at the resort. Oh joy. Here's a couple I will allow you to see though. haha, creepy

we're still little kids at heart and convinced them to turn on the "pterodactyl fountain" for us Do you know how hard it is to get this many people in the same pic underwater? (this is one of the least scary ones too, believe it or not) (All of us-both MU groups). So there you have it, the summarized (VERY) version of my trip to Belize! Hope you enjoyed it. I did!

You better BELIZE it!!

After I got engaged I decided to go to Belize for 3 weeks and get home 11 days before my wedding (actually I decided to go to Belize a long time ago, the wedding just threw in an interesting decision of whether to go or not). While it was incredibly stressful to get prepared to go and to get home so late and it was definitely NOT a vacation, it was also a great experience. We worked our butts off. I didn't even get a tan until the last two days I was there. Pathetic. For 3 weeks 5 other nursing students and I and two professors did blood pressure and diabetes screenings in clinics, hospitals, and community centers and taught health education including teeth brushing, hand washing, HIV/AIDS education, nutrition, safety, etc. in schools in the villages in the Cayo District of Belize. (Belmopan Hospital) (The whole group including our ProBelize leaders) The days were long. It was HOT and HUMID. When I say that, I mean that we soaked through our shirts and didn't even care because there was nothing you could do about it. People had salt lines on their shirts from the sweat. Nasty. But it was rewarding and a great experience. The poverty was incredible and hard to take in. (A typical house- this is actually relatively nice even if it is small). It was not something I will forget soon. At times it seemed there was so little we could do it was almost hopeless. I wish I could include more pics, I have thousands, but in an effort to protect identities of the Belizean people I've tried to somewhat hide faces. I truly came to love these people though. I hope someday I can return to San Ignacio and the villages that we visited. Thanks to Tropical Storm Andrew the Marine Biology group from Marymount joined us in San Ignacio too. (Both Marymount groups) They have a much more exciting story from Belize than we do. That's a very long story though. Let's just say they had to be rescued by helicopter. Their village ended up under water. We just got days and days and days of pouring rain (it NEVER stopped). (POURING) That's the condensed and somewhat altered version. But hey, it's a blog. Have some more pics. If you want the real stories from Belize, ask me.
(Just so you know we stayed in an absolutely INCREDIBLE resort pictured here) (roughing it in the jungle, haha) (the damn bird that came through the cage and bit me, yes, actually bit me at the zoo. Great story.) (Xunantunich Mayan Ruins) (We also had the amazing opportunity to go to Tikal, Guatemala which was an experience of a lifetime! I climbed those stupid very slick stairs in the rain, not smart, but incredible views!) (the last day we got to go to Caye Caulker and go snorkeling, it felt like a completely different country, but it was beautiful and fun too!)

Once upon a time, I was engaged...

...And I stopped blogging because every spare second of my time went to my fiancee. Sorry, but not really. So here's a few engagement pics:

Under the tree where we got engaged in DC

Dallas Divide, Colorado (one my favorite places on earth)

You only wish you were cool enough to have engagement pics on a Bulldozer too!

Ewww, ewww Boy!!!

While taking engagement pictures was fun, being engaged sucked, let's be honest. Marriage is SO much better!!