it has been a long time since I’ve written a post. No excuse, really. Last year I worked 3 part-time jobs and managed to travel to 14 countries catching babies, visiting friends and speaking at conferences. I’m currently on a flight to Newark and then off to Paris to assist another family with their birth. But I could have eeked out a few posts a week, for goodness sake.

While doing all that traveling I also reduced the amount of exercise I was doing and the weight crept on. A bit depressing and a lot disappointed in myself I grabbed back ahold of the reins in January. There’s no excuse really for reducing the exercise needed to keep the weight off. I could have gone for a 30 minute walk each and every evening, and in fact, while in China last summer I ran nearly every day, but I stopped  making it a priority. Big mistake. In January and February I did the Whole30, the goal of which is not to lose weight, but get rid of some bad stuff out of your diet. I managed to shed 9 pounds. In the process I did not have Splenda, coffee or dairy in my diet for those 30 days. Actually no artificial sweeteners, including Stevia. Coffee was allowed, but because I couldn’t get use to coconut creamer in it, I switched to a Hi-Caf Toasted Coconut Tea by The Republic of Tea and I’ve pretty much stayed away from coffee. I’ve only had 4 cups of DD coffee since January! The hardest thing to stay away from, but I did, was dairy, because I love cheese and Greek yogurt. I’ve introduced it back in, albeit in small quantities. 

So where did I travel last year? I’m going to spilt the year into many posts. That’s how many where’s I was! 

January 2014 – The Redneck Ice Storm – TALLAHASSEE

Jackie and I traveled to Tallahassee in late January to attend a Medicaid workshop on improving midwife and birth center reimbursements with the DOH. At the time I was driving my 19 year old Nissan, which ran fine. But, all day I kept getting God nudges to rent a car, so I did. A 2013 Ford Fusion, and it saved mine and Jackie’s lives. As we got on I-10 to head west it had been getting colder and colder, and the roads slicker and slicker. We were a good distance behind a Sonny’s BBQ van when the smoker they were towing jack knifed on the icy over pass in front of us and it flipped the van over, right in front of us. Listening to the sage advise my daddy gave me many years before, I took my foot off the gas and ever so gently applied the brake, the car gripped the road and we narrowly avoided the accident… By INCHES! I pulled over at the bottom of the overpass and Jackie and I, freezing our butts off, ran back up to assist the 3 cooks out of the van and call  911. We were in the middle of nowhere on a closed down (because of the storm) highway. It took 30 mins for rescue and highway patrol to get there.no critical injuries, but a couple serious ones. Needless to say, we drove like snails the rest of the way, literally sliding across the overpass at our exit, but the Fusion kept gripping the road and stopping the sliding. Long story short, I bought a Ford Fusion the following week. 😀 

February 2014 – CRUISE WITH MY BEST CRUISING BUDDY, CATHY!

We took a Royal Caribbean cruise to Belize and Mexico. We have so much fun just being together that it really doesn’t matter where we go! We had a bump out, en suite deck room, mid-ship. It was heavenly. We watched sunrises and sunsets, sat quietly and read and enjoyed the door ajar while we slept. The best thing we did was zip-line in Belize. Physically challenging, but we did great! 

I also ran a couple 5Ks with friends…

Assisted my favorite birth team at a fabulous, it takes a village of midwives, birth…

And had fantastic family photos done by my friend Danny Pesto…

March was filled with movies and dinner dates with friends…

Of which I can’t find a single photo!!! 😁

April 2014 – Domenican Republic with the Student Midwives

So this trip started out with 3 different airplanes, including an emergency landing! It had its ups and downs, but the students got some experience which is awesome. 

And that’s it for this post. It’s good to have a catch up with y’all!

Ciao!