MLK

Blog, California, International Travel, Michigan, Nature, United States

Happy MLK Day to you! For those of us who got it off, it was a very happy day indeed, for everyone else, sorry. Hope you enjoyed all the MLK quotes on social media, either way. I know I did. King had a lot of wise words that transcend the decades.

Today, we spent our day off enjoying a hike outside our town. What an amazing view we had! Kito was able to go off leash, which made her very happy.

Our hike in t-shirts was very different than last year, when we walked the city streets in the swirling snow.

Last year, we were in Southfield, Michigan, which is part of the Detroit metro area. MLK Day is a very big deal there! It was cool to be a part of a community that goes all out to celebrate the amazing Dr. King.

Despite the icy weather, Southfield citizens gather and march through downtown each MLK Day. The march ends at the civic center, where there is a big celebration with speeches, entertainment, and refreshments.

After my early morning classes with VIPKid, Ben and I suited up in our snow clothes and drove through the icy streets to a local church, where the members were passing out coffee and hot cocoa to what appeared to be half of Southfield. There were hundreds of people there! People representing every socioeconomic group, race, religion, and age were packed into the church gym and flowing out the door. Everyone was smiling, even as we stamped our feet to keep our toes from going numb. It goes to show what a big impact MLK had on our society!

We all poured out of the door and began to march down the street, across the bridge, and toward the glass and gold buildings of downtown. Fraternities, churches, and businesses unfurled banners. People laughed and joked together.

The best part, to me, was that this was not a political protest march, but a celebration. In fact, politics were almost totally absent from the while thing. It was about what brings us together, rather than what divides us.

The crowds at the civic center buzzed with conversation until the speeches, songs, and dance performances began. The theme of the year was “Youth are Our Future,” so teens led much of the ceremony. It was awesome.

Our hike this year was wonderful. But I will always savor memories of MLK Day 2018, when we marched alongside our neighbors to celebrate the community made possible by Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Bluffs

Uncategorized

So far my life in California has consisted of rocking my sweet baby and keeping my crazy dog as sane as possible. It’s a big change from last January, when I was working multiple jobs, braving a Detroit winter, writing a dissertation, and wondering why I felt so nauseous all the time! I’m so unstressed right now that it almost makes me wonder if I’m forgetting to do something complicated and important. But nope, ten weeks of pseudo-vacation means low stress and pretty much zero pressing plans.

Tummy time!

Because our time in California is too short to settle in but too long to be just a trip, we decided to stay in an Airbnb. That means we’re a family of three plus a dog living in a bedroom in someone’s house, but it also means I don’t have to clean the bathroom or remember to pay utilities. Plus, the people we’re staying with are pretty great.

Happy to be home after a day in neuro

Another perk of living here is the hiking! We love our Phoenix hiking, so we were glad to find that Kern County has a lot of cool hiking trails. In our town, there’s a park with walking trails that run down the side of the bluffs to a river walk. It’s an awesome place to explore!

During this rotation, Ben gets to come home early in the afternoon, even though he’s technically on the clock til five. He has to stay in his button-up and tie, and he has to wear a pager, but so far, he hasn’t been called back to the hospital. Best rotation ever!

Today, when he got off, we decided to go hike the bluffs. We were quite the group! Ben was in his work clothes, and I was in sweat pants with a hoodie-clad Little Man strapped to myself. And you can’t forget the Kito, who was euphoric because of the new trails and myriad of small wild animals. We let her off leash for a while, and she went nuts. She earned herself a bath after careening through standing water and crashing through the bushes after squirrels.

Tomorrow is Saturday, so we get to explore more! We’ve joined a hiking club and have our first excursion with the group in the morning. Life is good.

Temporary Californians

American University of the Caribbean, AUC, Blog, California, International Travel, United States

We are Californians for the next ten weeks! Ben has 67 days of med school left- but who’s counting- and he’s doing it in Kern County.

Not Kern County

Every time I tell someone we’re living in Cali for a while, they get excited about the beach and tell me how awesome it will be to live by the ocean. I guess when you live in Arizona, any proximity to water is exciting. A sad but true bit of Arizona trivia is that real estate with a canal view is expensive.

Actually, though, it’s winter in NorCal. Or is this central Cal? So there’s that. Also, Kern County is sadly nowhere near the beach, and even if it were, I wouldn’t be that excited. After two years of living a five-minute stroll from a Caribbean beach, the cold, sharky waters on the nearest coast aren’t worth the drive more than once or twice. I think I might be ruined forever, as far as beaches go.

My cool dudes in Cali

Beaches aside, it’s kind of fun to live under the bear flag for a while! So far, we’ve been two places. The first is Wal-Mart. We discovered that you have to pay 10 cents per plastic shopping sack here. As inconvenient as that sounds, I was actually kind of glad that we’ll be forced to use our own shopping bags here. In Detroit, where we lived last year, most people apparently hate the environment because there is trash literally everywhere. Not kidding… People on our complex used to chuck their trash bags off the balcony into the trees when they didn’t feel like taking it to the dumpster. We got so sick of it, we started taking reusable bags to the store as a silent protest against littering. Unless we went to Aldi, it was easy to cheat on our resolution… But you better believe that won’t happen here. No way I’m paying for bags.

The second place we went was the Civic Musical Road, which plays “William Tell” when you drive it! It’s so cool! Ben and I were both grinning like little kids on Christmas when we drove over it, turned around, and drove it again.

I didn’t take photos of Wal-Mart, because that would be weird. I also didn’t take pictires of the musical road, since I was driving. But here’s a picture of Kito in our Cali home to hold you over til the next California update!

Need a Devotional?

Bible, Blog, Uncategorized

Time to get back into your devotional routine? If you’re looking for a great personal or family devotion book, check out From a Pastor’s Heart and Hand by Joseph Oswald. 

This book is reminiscent of the compiled sermons of classic theologians. They are presented in a direct, oratory style, and you can almost hear the author’s voice addressing the reader passionately and personally. The text is engaging and punctuated with short illustrations from the lives of influential people, catchy sayings, and humorous anecdotes. Scripture and prose flow together seamlessly.  

This devotional is perfect for families, but it’s applicable to any believer. The writing is clear and succinct, conveying practical messages that are alternatively encouraging and convicting. The devotionals are short enough and straightforward enough for children to grasp, but they cut to the heart of issues experienced by adults as well. Topics range from faithfulness to finances and everything in between.

If you only have time for a devotional reading, you can absorb a chapter of the book with your morning coffee. Or, you can sit down with your family at dinner time and expand the devotional with the questions and Bible reading at the end of chapters. 

As someone whose life has been deeply influenced by the author of this book, I can testify that From a Pastor’s Heart and Hand is the perfect title for this devotional. Pastor Joe Oswald has spend his years shepherding congregations, children, P.E. classes, and youth with both loving guidance and hands-on engagement. 

From a Pastor’s Heart and Hand flows from this discipleship, which is at the heart of Christian teaching and leadership. For this reason, this book is sure to impact your life in a small way each day and for the rest of your life. Years after reading it, you may find yourself engaging in “Thankful Thursday” prayer or reminding yourself that “when you point a finger at others, four are still pointing at yourself.”

You can get this book on Amazon in either print or Kindle format. If you don’t have a devotional for the New Year, why not make a strong start with From a Pastor’s Heart and Hand?

Upscale Living

Uncategorized

Most of the time, applying for residency is very, very expensive for med students. It’s not uncommon for them to drop ten grand on interview season!

However, there are those unicorn interviews where you get treated instead of paying out the nose. 

We got lucky enough to get one of those. 

A hospital in Palm Springs, California invited Ben to interview for residency, and since it is pretty close to home, he decided to go and take me with him. Actually, we decided to make a family road trip out of it! As I was planning our Airbnb bookings, Ben told me that the hospital was paying for interviewees’ hotel stays. In the Marriott Resort. 

Oh, yeah. 

Even better, they told Ben to bring me to the pre-interview dinner, which was at the very fancy resort restaurant. 

I have never been to an open-bar event before, so I felt a bit out of my element! Especially since the other significant others seemed to fit into this setting quite easily. Let’s just say I don’t do well in conversations about decorators and deaigner purses.

But the homemade ginger ale was pretty bomb, and some of the other inteviewees were also from Caribbean schools, so cocktail hour ended up being a lot of fun! Dinner was great, too-  one of the resident’s wives was from Mexico, and she and another resident patiently let me bushwhack my way through conversations in Spanish. 

The most fun part of the day, though, was taking baby to the pool and showing Ben the baby swim techniques we learned in swim lessons. So much fun!

After a night in the massive suite, Ben went to his interview and baby and I took full advantage of the resort. 

As you can see, the resort (and its 1.5 mile walking path) was a wonderful place to spend a morning!

Baby even got some tummy time on the lawn.

Residency interviews have their perks. 

Baby Johnson

Uncategorized

We welcomed little baby Johnson into our family last month! And I have to say it has been the best few weeks of my life. He’ll be a month old in a couple of days, and I just want those days to crawl by… I love the newborn stage. I keep telling myself that I will love the next stage, too… We have smiles and rolling over and improved vision to look forward to.

In other news, Ben is enjoying his cardiology rotation and has been going to residency interviews. Life is changing so quickly and more change is on the horizon!

Blueberries for Johnsons

Blog, International Travel, Michigan, United States

 

Have you ever read the classic children’s story Blueberries for Sal? I have, probably a hundred times or more. Ever since I was a little kid flipping through the mid-century monochromatic illustrations in the book, I have wanted to go blueberry picking. I didn’t even like blueberries as a kid (they seemed like big, purple peas to me, and who likes peas?), but I wanted to hear the “plink, plink” of blueberries dropping in a bucket.

 

 

Arizona doesn’t exactly have an abundance of blueberry patches. Michigan, however, does! We moved to Michigan after blueberry season had ended last year, but berry picking stayed on my list until July.

 

 

When Ben’s brother Jesse, sister-in-law Joy, and their boys Zach, Micah, and Elliot came to visit from Africa, I wanted to do some fun quintessential Michigan activities. Something really different than the activities you can do in sub-Saharan Africa. So, I suggested we take a trip to a u-pick blueberry farm. I guess it was a little it selfish, because it was something on MY to-do list for the summer! Luckily for me, it was also on their “America bucket list,” and so we loaded up in the car and off we went. As a bonus, Ben mentioned to his supervising resident that his brother was visiting from overseas, and, on a whim, the resident gave Ben a rare half day to come with us. How lucky is that?

 

 

We decided to go to Dexter Blueberry Farm, which is fairly close to Detroit.

 

 

It was a great choice! The farm’s u-pick arrangement is pretty casual. You walk up, grab a shiny red bucket, and head to a sprawling field of blueberry bushes to fill your bucket. Plink! Plink!

 

 

Of course, we were all more interested in filling our bellies than we were in filling our buckets. Chilled blueberries in a grocery store carton are yummy. Sun-warmed blueberries from the bush are simply decadent. Like, close-your-eyes-and-savor-it decadent.

 

 

Somehow, we did manage to collect enough berries in the buckets! A few pounds of consumed berries and a blueberry war later (I won’t tell you who started it, but his name is spelled B E N), we had filled our buckets and were ready to check out.

 

 

At Dexter Blueberry Farms, u-pick berries are $2 per pound. Compare that to supermarket prices! In the end, our massive amount of blueberries only cost $20. I guess it makes sense that berries in the store are more pricey, because picking those berries is actually a lot of work. It’s a lot of fun for an afternoon, but I imagine it’s a pretty intense full-time job.

 

 

It can be hard to find activities that adults and kids ages eight through 13 enjoy, but blueberry picking was a winner. Plus, we ended up with a massive amount of blueberries that tasted amazing in cereal, ice cream, and snacks for a couple of weeks.

Picking blueberries was the perfect way to spend a summer afternoon!

 

 

Visit Dexter Blueberry Farm

When to visit: Blueberry season is in July

Address: 11024 Beach Road, Dexter, MI 48130

Phone number: 734.426.2900

Cost: Blueberries are $2 per pound. Eat all you want for free!

Good things to know: Wear sunscreen! The sun can get intense. Hand sanitizer or wipes are a good idea, since you’ll be eating out of your hands as you pick. Also, there are only porta-potties at the farm.

First Day of 20th Grade

American University of the Caribbean, AUC, Blog

It’s that time of year…. you know, when all the moms are posting cute photos of their kids holding Pinteresty signs announcing what grade they are about to begin. Not to be outdone, I was sure to take a photo of my (very cooperative) husband on his first day of med school year four:

 

 

Folks, this is the last first day of school for him. Ever. Twenty-plus years of school is enough. Next year, I’ll have him post for a “first day of work as a doctor” photo. But I probably won’t ask him to hold a sign.

I decided to find his other “first day of school” photos. I took them every year, usually chasing him out the door at the last minute because I just remembered I wanted a picture. His first year of medical school, we actually got a pretty nice photo for the first day of school, which was his white coat ceremony:

 

 

I’m not positive which photo is the “first day” photo from med school year 2, but here’s a photo from that year:

 

 

You can see Kito is enjoying her favorite perch, which is always behind Ben in whatever chair he happens to be sitting in.

Here’s last year, the third year of medical school, with his white coat freshly ironed on his way to his first family medicine rotation at the clinic:

 

 

And, of course, I can’t forget to do a throwback to his first day of college. This picture is provided by his Aunt Barb, who dropped him off at school not long after he arrived in Arizona from Tanzania.

 

 

Hard to believe that was almost ten years ago, in 2009!

So, what does 20th grade look like for Ben? Well, for the first four weeks, he has a subinternship rotation in internal medicine. He works 60-some hours a week over six days. I’m not going to lie, I was pretty sad to lose that Saturday with him. BUT- they aren’t requiring any overnight on-call shifts, so that is a major benefit. He doesn’t get “paternity leave,” since he’s a student, but fortunately he can take a couple of days when the baby is born. I’m hoping the baby decides to make his grand debut on one of Ben’s days off. Baby is due September 26, during his last week on this rotation, We’ll see if he comes on time or early. Or late– who knows?

 

 

After that, we’re not sure what Ben’s schedule will be. I figure that all of the rotations will probably be pretty intense, but at this point it’s just about getting through everything until April, when he’ll finish his last rotation. He just took the 9-hour USMLE Step 2 exam two weeks ago, which means no massive exams to study for this year! Phew!

 

 

After so much school, it’s hard to believe Ben’s almost done. It will be pretty weird to have neither of us in school for the first time ever! But it will also be pretty awesome.

Cherry Picking at Westview Orchards

Blog, International Travel, Michigan, United States

One of the best things about living in Michigan is the availability of fresh produce. And I’m not just talking about dirt-cheap local peaches at Meijer, although those are amazing. I’m talking about the endless u-pick farms that offer everything from apples to asparagus to strange fruits I have never even heard of.

 

 

During my year in Michigan, I visited u-pick farms as often as possible. One fruit-picking season that I was particularly excited about was cherry season.

 

 

Cherry season just happened to peak during the time that Ben’s sister’s family was visiting, so I drove them out of the city to a cherry farm for some classic summertime fun. Ben had to work, so he missed out on the fun, but he did get to enjoy the result of our visit.

 

 

Westview Orchards in Washington, Michigan is the place to go with kids! Of course, my two nephews were perfectly entertained by picking (well, okay, eating) fresh cherries off the tree, but there were also plenty of other things for them to do, including a hay maze, a unique playground, and a petting zoo.

 

 

As far as fun experiences go, though, the cherries really take the cake. We pulled in to Westview Orchards the morning of cherry season’s opening day, and we were greeted by enthusiastic employees who seemed just as excited for the cherries as we were. The gentleman who monitored the picking itself was very helpful, pointing out the different cherry varieties in the orchard and giving fruit selection tips.

 

 

My nephews had a great time in the orchard, exploring the unique tastes of each tree’s fruit, climbing ladders, and choosing favorite trees. Even we adults had a hard time filling our bags faster than we could eat the cherries!

 

 

After a picnic lunch and ice cream, we headed home to bake a cherry pie.

 

 

I helped Annette pit the cherries, and she made the best cherry pie I have ever had. The perfect end to a great day on the farm!

 

Visit Westview Orchards

When to visit: Cherry season is in June, but Westview Orchards offers u-pick almost year-round.

Address:  65075 Van Dyke, Washington, MI 48095

Phone number: (586) 752-3123

Cost: Cherries are about $8 per person, which includes entrance fee and a bag to fill with cherries

Good things to know: Outside food, backpacks, and large bags are not permitted. I was able to take in my backpack camera case without a problem, however.

 

 

Two Things

American University of the Caribbean, AUC, Blog

 

There are two things you should know about me before I write any posts on travel or adventure. Which I certainly plan to do now that I have finished my master’s program! It will be nice to write for fun again, rather than cranking out academic papers. I have definitely been enjoying reading for fun again!

 

 

The first life event is our move to Phoenix. Ben and I are back! I arrived a couple of weeks ago, and Ben just rolled into town yesterday. Ben will be doing the next semester of medical school at a hospital in the downtown area. We don’t know where we will be for his next (and last!) semester.

 

 

The second life event is that we are welcoming Johnson #3 in September! Baby boy is due to arrive on September 26. Currently, I am about 32 weeks along! Just a few more weeks before we get to meet him.

 

 

Well, there’s a quick update on our lives! A lot of change, and a lot of things to look forward to.