Birthday!

This was the second birthday that I have celebrated here in Scotland and both years I have had respiratory practical classes (luckily this year I was not sick and did not have to be the example in class). We had 'patients' from the community come in and act for us so we could do pre and post op assessments, it turned out to be pretty good. The best part I think, was when I was talking to my 'patient' before we started and he asked me what part of Ireland I was from. He was very shocked that I was actually from the US. At lunch we all had chocolate cake, Caryn made it and it was very delicious! Then after the 6.5 hours of class Safina, Caryn and I decided that we needed to go out for a drink so the three of us plus Rod went to drinks and this pub called Dizzy's. It was pretty dead but the pub was really nice and it turned out to be great fun. On friday Safina, Caryn and I are renting a car and going to go do some hill walking outside of Aberdeen and then on Saturaday I am having the whole gang over to mine for cheesecake and sangria to round off the week of celebrating my birthday!

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and gifts!
Meagan

Library & Starbucks

Saturday was one of those spring days in Portland where one minute its sunny and the next minute you're in a downpour. After breakfast my roommates (Annie & Emily) and I decided to run out during a sunny moment to the library. We are very lucky to live just a few blocks from a library branch. Emily decided that she wanted to push her stroller herself, which she did the whole way the the library, at 2 she decides when she wants to be a big girl or not.

We hit the library right as it opened and then decided to go next door to Starbucks for a bit. It seemed like everyone had the same idea, we ended up having to sit outside. Just as the weather turned chilly, so we walked home in a drizzle, but that's spring in Portland.

Sun and Rain

So saturday Safina, Caryn and I thought that since it was sunny we would go to Duthie Park, which I had never been to but now think it is one of the best places in Aberdeen. The park is really beautiful. Since it was saturday we got to see some cricket games being played, all six teams wearing white, and we climbed a tree. We also went to the botanical garden and there I got a new plant to brighten up my flat. I got an oxalis triangular or purple shamrock. It is really pretty. After I bought it I relized that I am going to be away for 10 weeks so now my solution is that I am going to be traveling with my plant! I think I might get a few weird looks on the boat up and back from Orkney!!After we were done walking at the park it started raining. Would not be Aberdeen without rain so we ended up walking the 30 min back to my flat in the rain. We were drenched when we got to my flat but then we had a cup of tea some cheese cake and watched Mama Mia!

Beautiful Weekend

It was a beautiful weekend in Portland.
One of those weekends where you just
could not stay indoors. My roommates
and I spent most of the weekend in
our backyard weeding and planting all
kinds of goodies. For flowers we planted
an Echinacea, Fairy Bells, and
Four O'clock seeds. For herbs we planted
basil, thyme, sage, rosemary
and cilantro. For fruits & veggies we planted
a blueberry bush, tomatoes, zuchinni, cucumbers,
and sweet peas.

Hopefully by mid-summer we will have a beautiful & harvestful yard & planter boxes.

Easter fun in Scotland

So my easter was much different than my sisters fun easter egg hunt. It happened to be on of the only sunny weekends in Scotland, we had three days of sun and Sunday was fairly warm (for Scotland, we got all the way to 13). After chruch I made the most delicious carrot cake ever and then had dinner with friends. We had ham, mash, gravy, green beens, corn bread, and my cake! It was really good and we all got to sit around a dinner table to celebrate Jesus!

Easter Egg Hunt

KelliJean & Tiah have trouble believing that we will ever be too old for Easter egg hunts. Saturday just encouraged this belief, when we attended the Easter egg hunt at Jackson's Sports bar in Richland. In our defense it was for a good cause, it was a fundraiser for Second Harvest, the Mid-Columbia food bank.

The Easter egg hunt started after dark, in the park next to the sports bar, where there was no street or park lights. Thanks to our friend Chase, we had head lamps, so we did not have to try and use the tiny flash lights provided. We were accompanied by aprox. 75 other people scrambling to find the 150 plastic eggs and chocolate bunnies in the dark.

We did reasonable well, finding several plastic eggs filled with candy, much of which we donated to our church's Easter egg hunt the next day. We also, found a gift certificate to a local framing shop which we past on to our parents.

Overall, it was a fun evening with old friends and continues our trandition of Easter egg hunts.

Meagan in Paris

There are 700 stairs up to the second level of the Eiffle Tower! I know this because I did this when I was in Paris. I also did the 400 stiars up to the tower of Notre-Dame, the stairs up to the Arc de Trioumphe, the hill and stairs up to Basilique du Sacre-Coeur. Other sites I went to were the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Pantheon, Centre Georges Pompidou, Armee-Tombeau de Napoleon I at Les Invalides plus a much more. We did the boat site seeing cruise on the Sienne which was lots of fun and it talked about all the bridges, the buildings we could see and pointed out the smallest house in Paris. One day we went out to Vresailles and was herded through the palace but then enjoyed seeing the Grand Trianon, Marie-Antoinette's Estate and the amazing gradens. We also had the chance to go to Chateau de Fontianebleau for a day and enjoyed that palace and gardens. This was our last full day and we took our books with us and relaxed in the grass of the gardens reading and getting sunburns.

We ate lots of fabulous food. My new favorite food is duck, but I also really enjoy crepes and pastries. The food was one of the best parts of the trip. And since we were walking everywhere we were hungry most of the time and so ate often. On the days we went out to Fontainebleau and Versailles we took pinic lunches of french bread, cheese and fruit. These might be my favoriate lunches in Paris.

Spring Quarter

Hello! Today we had our first sign of spring! It was over sixty degrees today and I wore flip-flops, I'm so excited to not see snow!!!! Spring quarter is here, in fact it is the start of the second week. I am taking a full load of classes this quarter yet again. This quarter I am taking: Elemtentary structures of Math II (again, grrr), Introduction to Chicano Culture (for my gender and cultural diversity class), Storytelling in Children's Literature and Introduction to Elementary Reading. My quarter is going to be extremely busy, I have a lot of reading to do and an assignment due everyday so it will be a challenge to keep up with all my school work and managing to have a little fun.
KelliJean

Tiah hosted a baby shower

Saturday was my good friend Marcia’s baby shower, which was hosted at my house. I thought I lived in a large house, but once 40 people were inside, it felt pretty small. It took several days of massive cleaning & decorating. My friend Jodie & her month old son Malachi came over at 9am to help with the food preparation. Marcia has gestational diabetes’s; we wanted to make sure she could eat all of the food, so we made everything ourselves with the help of a
great website www. dlife.com/diabetes/diabetic-recipes.

The party started around 1:30, and the food was a hit. Everyone seemed to enjoy the games, and Marcia received a lot of great baby items, including a large amount of diapers in a variety of sizes.