Graduation Day

I had the great privelage of being invited to Eli's graduation from Loma Linda University Medical School. It was a busy day Sunday. Woke up at about 7am (ahhh Sunday's are for sleeping in!) to try and make it to Loma Linda by 8:30am. Although late I did make it! Here are some pictures from the graduation! CONGRATULATIONS ELI!!! So sorry to see Eli and Susie leave for Florida as he is doing his residency there but glad to see them move on to bigger and better things.

There's the proud wife reading the announcements, followed by friends Paul and Janie.

Dr. Carson was the special speaker. What an inspiring and compassionate speach he gave! Full of warmth and good advice.

Eli handing Miso over to Susie, Miso got to walk too!

The happy grad.

It was such a pleasure sharing such a special day with such special people.

Our Advent Hope group.

I ran into the newlyweds Michelle and Andy there too.

Awww, there's the happy couple at their home. The cupcakes have graduation hats and Eli written on them, mmmm delish cupcakes.

Miso doned a graduation hat for the occasion.

Then it was off to the dental hygiene and dental school graduation. Here's Jeanette and me.

My graduation party lady buddies from lt to rt: Elisa, Teresa, Mua, Nicole and Julie.

And the wonderful Andrew, who is always full of energy and fun times, graduated too!

BTW if you want to see all the pictures from the graduation let me know and I will give you the Picasa link.

Medical school dilemma

One of my favorite pictures...look at the clear turquoise colored water!

As many of you may know I have been having some second thoughts about medical school, wondering about going. It's been a rough few weeks as I have debated about how this decision has the potential to take me into two totally different worlds. As I've talked to the good people around me there has been a lot of support and belief in me pursuing this endeavor. I was so surprised to find that people had such wonderful thoughts of me. Don, from work, kept telling me (in a mantra type rhythm) "Go - to - school, go - to - school and don't - look - back". He told me later that he saw great potential in me and told me how strongly he believed that I should go to medical school. Jonathan, also from work, has also been encouraging me to go. Linda gave me a super wonderful compliment telling me that she sees me doing it all...being a mother, wife and doctor. Janelle agreed and told me how she felt that I would be a terrific doctor, one that would care so much for her patients. Thanks to you all and the others who have been with me through this time. I hope to have as much faith in myself as you all have in me.

I will buy my tickets to Dominica today!

I will try to use this blog to post pictures of my future home and school. Hopefully I can bring the island wonders and beauty to you via this blog. Dominica is called the nature island because it is one of the most "untouched" and "unspoiled" of all the Caribbean islands. The island attracts scuba divers from all over the world with it's underwater volcanoes that create bubbles in the water like champagne, migrating whales and colorful sea creatures like the sea horse and the batfish. A good reason to get my scuba diving license while I'm there. Just some trivia: Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3 were filmed partly on Dominica.

A dog the size of a horse!

Hercules was recently awarded the honourable distinction of Worlds
Biggest Dog by Guinness World Records. Hercules is an English Mastiff
And has a 38 inch neck and weighs 282 pounds.
With "paws the size of softballs" (reports the Boston Herald), the
Three-year-old monster is far larger and heavier than his breed's
Standard 200lb. Limit. Hercules owner Mr. Flynn says that Hercules
Weight is natural and not induced by a bizarre diet:
"I fed him normal food and he just grew".... And grew. And grew. And grew.

Can you imagine the dog food bill?! His paw is about the size of Miso.

Hmmm, but look again...can you say photoshop? This is not the real Hercules, the real one is not quite as cute, you can find the real one on this web site: http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://vsm.cape.com/%7Etrailbos/Hercules.html

Saturday Advent Hope group on a field trip

Alpha-Kai spelling out their name in front of David.

Ken and Susie in front of the Moses statue.

A picture of all the gals. Lt to right, me, sweet Teresa, bubbly Susie, smiling Janie and our new friend (um sorry I forgot her name! but she has a cool british accent).

Miso and me.

Alex giving us all the 411 on the statue inside this building. The guy whole painted it brought it from Poland for the world fair, but it was too big! Well after the fair he tried to ship it back home but it was too expensive and had to leave it in the US. The owner of forest lawn saw it after the artist died and had a building made just to show it, the painting stretched across this whole building....but we never got to see it.

A copy of the pieta. Eli's checking out the physical wounds with his expert physician's eyes.

This past Saturday our little Advent Hope group took a little field trip to Forest Lawn in Glendale.

Ofcourse we had our regular yummy potluck lunch at Susie Q and Eli's place. We went from there to Glendale. The first stop was the stained glass version of the last supper (of which the original painting is located in Milan Italy). We got in trouble for trying to bring Miso in, having cameras, and then finally for taking pictures while in the showroom, ooops. On the second stop we were supposed to see a huge painting that covers the whole length of the building. You can see the building in this picture where some of our group is standing in front of. The exhibit was closed because a. the lady who runs the viewing was sick, or b. there were mechanical problems...hmmm which could it be?!

After Alex led us through the grounds we headed back to Loma Linda to Susie Q's again to have dinner and watch some of Paul's DVD "Planet Earth" which was fantastic! We learned about some of weirdest looking creatures like the eyeless salimander which lives in caves, river dolphins, sea otters that chase away crocodiles (which later succesfully attacks a water buffalo), how bats can leave a dung pile that reaches 100 meters and more! It was a fun Saturday spent with my friends from church.

Ken (the Kai of AlphaKai) and I decided to participate in a big fat loser's contest. The race is on to lose our big fat!! We'll be weighing in each Saturday to see how we're doing. I will keep you all posted! :)

Swing that leg, fast as lightening. Don't wanna get in front of that foot.

Watch out Gui!

Someone's gonna take someone down!

Steve mastering the art of the meia lua compasso. Lift that butt in the air ;).

Steph, getting ready to kick some butt. You go girl!

Steve getting ready to queixada.

That's Steph stretching her legs out before she works it out again.

Cicking Butt in Capoeira class

Here are some pics of my friends and me in Capoeira class. Steve, Stephanie and I all go to class together on Thursdays during our lunch hour.