Fiji Figured Out

Sarah and I have decided on a place to stay in Fiji (FINALLY...1 week before we leave!!) We leave LAX at 11:00 pm on Sunday and arrive in Nadi, Fiji at 5:30 am on Tuesday (we are just going to pretend Monday, June 8th never happened for us...?). We will meet "Dan the Man" at the Nadi airport and he will drive us to Lautoka where we will spend a few hours until we can catch a ferry to Waya Island, part of the Yasawa Island group. After a 90 minute boat ride, we will arrive in paradise!

We will spend the next 3 days island hopping, relaxing, snorkeling, going on a village trip to Naulawaki (where majority of the staff lives) , crab racing and coconut tree climbing (yup, I just said those last two!).

I really love this "resort" because of its special village program. Majority of the staff lives in Naulawaki and Octopus Resort keeps a great working relationship with the village and the people from Naulawaki. Octopus started an education fund that pays for the schooling of every school aged child in the village. Sarah and I are going to pack up some toys and books to bring to the village children when we visit. While in Naulawaki, we will have the chance to be treated to a village meke, or cultural show. Afterwards, we can walk around the village and purchase crafts and art.

Read more about it at www.octopusresort.com

On Friday, we will travel back to Nadi to spend the night before catching a flight on Saturday morning to Brisbane, Australia. We will be exploring both Nadi and Brisbane for just a day each.

Busy Weekend

This has been a BUSY weekend! My weekend started on Thursday with a "roommate dinner date" with Amy. We have both been craving The Melting Pot and decided to do a roommate dinner before I left. We made reservations for Thursday night and had an amazing dinner! MMMM nothing beats some good wine, good fondue, and good conservation!

About a month ago, Amy called me up and asked me what I was doing on Friday, May 29th. Naturally, I had no plans that far in advance! She said "Good, I just signed us both us to volunteer!" We volunteered at the Red Shoe Shindig for the Ronald McDonald House Charities. The Red Shoe Shindig was held at the Hobbs building in Kansas City. From the website: "Slip on your red shoes and join us for an evening of fun with friends and make an impact on the lives of others. During the evening, you will have an opportunity to participate in the live auction, which promises to be exciting." There were several live auction items as well as numerous silent auction items. The signature live auction item was "Sponsor A Family", in which donors gave donations as high as $10,000. As people "bid" on this item (everyone "won"), we passed out balloons to the winners. The event was really fun and I'm looking forward to volunteering for future events!

Amy and I in our red high heels

Saturday was also a fun filled day! The day started with a few friends coming to the apartment in the morning. Around 2, we all walked to Liberty Memorial Park for Rockfest. Rockfest is the largest 1 day music festival in the US. This year the bands included Korn, Buckcherry, Saving Abel, Shinedown, Theory of a Deadman, Rev Theory, Corey Taylor, and many others on two stages. The concert lasted from 11 am to 11 pm. The concert was sold out within a week of tickets being on sale and there were approximately 50,000 people in attendance! I've attended my fair share of concerts, but this experience was totally different than the rest! I'm not going to lie, it got loud and rowdy at points!! It was a beautiful day and a great way to spend a sunny Saturday!

Creed and I enjoying the show

Roommates!!

Look at that crowd!

We were actually able to push our way up to almost the very front when Shinedown was playing

Officer Ben talking to me when I lost all my friends! And FYI, I asked for all those beads... I didn't earn any of them!!

My bruised, swollen, and cut ankle! I got caught in the middle of a mosh pit and came away ALMOST unhurt! :)

I spent Sunday afternoon doing one of my favorite summer activities: baseball!! The Royals were in town playing the White Sox this weekend and I wanted to be sure to catch another game before I left town for the summer. We got outfield seats this game and I love them! It's a total different place to sit and the view is still great! It was a beautiful day, perfect for catching some sun and some baseball!

Summer Itinerary

Sarah is very OCD and organized as well (see why we get along so well!?) and she created an itinerary for us. 12 flights later, this is what my summer looks like!!


June 4-6 Sarah in Kansas City

June 6-7 Huntington Beach, California

June 7 Depart LAX for Fiji

June 9-13 Fiji (No specific location planned yet, I keep forgetting to go to the travel agent...)

June 13-14 Brisbane, Australia

June 14-24 Darwin, Australia

June 18-20 Kakadu National Park camping trip

June 24-27 Canberra, Australia

June 27-July 19 Sydney, Australia

July 2-5 New Zealand (Again, no specific location yet....)

July 19-27 Cairns, Australia

July 27 Arrive back in U.S.


Our course is called Beyond The Fatal Shore: Australian History, Sport & Politics. The syllabus says "This program will present an overview of key themes in Australian history, including indigenour and colonial history, sport, and politics. We will be attending lectures, watching movies, and going on fieldtrips. We will be writing 3 papers and keeping a fieldtrip journal. We will be staying in a variety of different accommodations including a backpackers hostel in Darwin and Canberra, an apartment in Sydney, and a resort in Cairns.

We will spend the first night in Darwin visiting the Mindlin beach markets. On Monday, we will have a quick orientation and a welcome dinner/reception to meet the other students in our program. We start class on Tuesday and Wednesday with 2 hour lectures each day. On Wednesday night, we are taking a bicycle excursion to NT Museum and Art Gallery. The first weekend will be spent going on a 3 day camping trip in Kakadu National Park. We spent the beginning of the week attending 2 hour lectures on Monday and Tuesday before departing for Canberra on Wednesday. On Thursday, we go on two separate fieldtrips to the Australian War Memorial and a tour of Parliament House. Friday is also a day filled with fieldtrips as we visit the National Museum of Australia and the Canberra Zoo. We leave on Saturday on a 3 hour bus ride to Sydney, where we will spend the next several weeks. We have a free day on Sunday before attending class class Monday-Friday. This week will focus on Australian Politics for the first 2 hours and Sport History for the remaining 2 hours. We have a free weekend, which Sarah and I are using to travel to New Zealand for 3 days. We have class again on Monday-Thursday before getting another free 3 day weekend. Sarah and I are thinking about traveling to Melbourne. We have class again on Monday, but get a short break on Tuesday when we take a history excursion to "The Rocks". We have class again on Wednesday, but then another history excursion to Hyde Park Baracks and Sydney City on Thursday. We have a free weekend before departing on Sunday for Cairns. In Cairns, we have short lectures on Monday-Wednesday, which is officially our last day of class. We get the next 5 days to enjoy Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. We depart for the United States on Monday, July 27th at 6:30 am. That is going to be SUCH a long day! We have a layover in Brisbane before catching our flight to LAX.

25 Random Facts About Me

This is actually from a note I wrote on Facebook, but I decided to share it on here too!

1. I love to travel! I contribute a lot of things to both my parent's being in the Air Force when I was younger and this is one of them. I love to explore new places, meet new people, and interact with cultures different than my own. Since March 2008, I have been on a cruise to the Bahamas, spent 6 weeks in London, traveled (by myself) through Scotland to explore my heritage, been on a 3 day champagne tour through the Route De Champagne in France, traveled to Indiana to run a 5K, and spent a few weeks (not in succession) in Huntington Beach, California. That is just the beginning! I leave in 10 days to spend 4 days in Fiji, 6 weeks in various cities around Australia, and 3 days in New Zealand. This fall, I'm going on a float trip, to Vegas with one of my best friends Justine, Hawaii for my niece's 21st birthday, and a ski trip. I never turn down an opportunity to travel!

2. I’m very OCD. Things have to be either in height order (Left to Right, Top to Bottom) or in A-Z order (again, Left to Right, Top to Bottom). My movies are in ABC order and my “friends” like to move them around on me. Beware: I will notice within 3 days! :)

3. I also have issues with numbers. I like when things end in either 5 or 0, but I can justify to myself other numbers.

4. I lost my mom when I was 15 and I still think about her every day. I just remember that she is watching down on me and I should become the best person possible to make her proud. I just hope that I turn out to be half the woman she was in life. I recently got a tattoo in her honor.

5. I was engaged for over a year to my high school sweetheart. We were engaged on Feb 15, 2008 and I called the wedding off on Feb 18, 2009. We had been dating for 5.5 years and were set to be married on August 1, 2009 (remember that number obsession: 8+1=9..). I don't look back and regret any part of our relationship, but I know he wasn't "The One" for me, nor was I "The One" for him. I feel you take a lot out of failed relationships and I'm confident we will both eventually find "The One".

6. I have recently found myself enjoying running. I ran my first 5K in April and I'm training for my first half marathon, which I plan on running in October.

7. I lost 45-50 pounds during Aug 2008-Jan 2009. I did Weight Watchers and loved it. I found it super easy to stick with and don’t think I’ll ever try another diet other than WW. The first bite tastes exactly the same as the last bite. I use this philosophy to still be able to enjoy sweets!

8. I graduated high school in 3 years and graduated with my undergrad degree in 3.5 years. No, I’m actually not that smart and I’ll share my GPAs to prove it!

9. I am a speed reader and I love to read. I can usually finish most books in a night or two. I would rather curl up on the couch to read than watch TV at night.

10. I actually don’t watch too much TV except for "my shows". I’m obsessed with One Tree Hill and own all the seasons that are available on DVD. I love having friends over to drink wine and watch OTH. I also watch Desperate Housewives and have started to enjoy Gray’s.

11. I am the youngest of 7 children!! Our ages range from me (21) to 40. I have 1 full brother, 3 step siblings, and 2 half siblings. I love them all and enjoy when we are all (or majority of us!) are together. There is always something going on when we are together. At one point, all 7 of us lived in different states. Not only do 4 of us live in Missouri now, but 3 of us live less than 25 minutes from each other in the Kansas City area.

12. I recently moved to downtown Kansas City and I love everything about my apartment. My roommate's name is Amy and we met while I was an intern at BKD. I think we might have secretly been separated at birth...

13. I love wine. I prefer sweet wine: red or white doesn’t matter.

14. One of my biggest worries in life is losing people close to me suddenly. I worry about my friends and family 24-7.

15. When I was a 14-15, I was on a competitive cheerleading squad and LOVED every minute of it. There were weeks leading up to competitions that we would practice 6 days a week.

16. I became an NCA All-Star Cheerleader my freshman year of high school.

17. I used to race BMX bikes when I was younger. When I was 10, I was ranked the #1 female for my age division in Indiana.

18. I'm going back to school to get my Master's in Accountancy. I'm so ready to be done with school, but I'm not ready for "the real world" quite yet. I tried to grow up too fast and I'm enjoying taking the time to slow down and enjoy being young.

19. I want kids one day, but I worry if I would know what to do with them. When I babysit, I run out of ideas to entertain them after about 2 hours.

20. I'm a big fan of concerts. One of my favorite concert moments in the past 6 months was when my old roommate, Jenny, and I randomly ended up at an ACDC concert with her brother and his friends... on a Wednesday night... in our work clothes!! The plan was to meet them for a few drinks after work, but we ended up buying tickets and going go to the concert with them. The night ended with a $60 cab ride home.... but not before going through Taco Bell first!!

21. I have some pretty sweet scars. I have 3 small ones between my eyes that ironically enough form an “H”. They are all 3 from learning how to walk and running into coffee/tables and fireplaces. Told you I wasn’t too bright! (See #8). I also have a long scar on my right wrist that people used to call my “Harry Potter” scar because it looks like a lightening flash.

22. My elbows are double jointed and it looks really gross. All my cheerleading coaches used to complain about them and I had to learn to not fully extend them so they looked straight!

23. My #1 biggest fear in life is getting breast cancer. I don’t think I’m strong enough to ever get tested for the gene though.

24. I love my friends. I don't have a huge amount of close friends, but I have good quality close friends :)

25. I’m excited to see what the future brings for my life. I tend to try and overplan things, but I’m learning that it is okay to not know what is coming or going to happen.

Looking Through Old Pictures

As I get ready for Sarah and I's once in a lifetime adventure, I have started to look through my pictures from last summer. For those of you that don't know, I studied abroad at Imperial College in London, England for 6 weeks. I lived in a flat with 3 other American students in Earls Court, which was about a mile from Imperial's campus. This summer will be a different experience because our program takes us through so many different cities in Australia. Last summer, I was in London the entire time, except for the two weekend trips I did.

Photo Flashbacks:

Walk from our flat to school

View from the London Eye

The London Eye

Our street address!

Our tube stop.. Earl's Court

It was a semi-rare even to see the bridge actually open

Changing of the guards

I loved the tube system!

Big Ben

They really just stand there!

Warwick Castle

We took a fieldtrip to Stratford-Upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace. We watched Taming of the Shrew.

Kate, Kelly, Jenna, Kara and I at King's Head enjoying one of my favorite beers... Fruili!

We had a 3 day holiday weekend at the end of May. Jenna, Kelly and I decided to do a champagne tour through France. We took a bus from London to Dover, where we crossed the English Channel on a ferry, and continued on bus to Paris. We spent the night in Paris before starting our 3 day adventure along the Route Du Champagne.

Enjoying the Eiffel Tower

It's seriously MASSIVE!

Every hour on the hour, thousands of strobe lights flash to make the Tower appear like it's sparkling.

A grape field along the Route Du Champagne

We toured 3 different Champagne houses with a taste test at the end of each.

Inside on the of the cave tunnels:

The champagne tour was one of the once in a lifetime events most people have never done! It was a GREAT way to spend one of our 3 day weekends!

One of our class assignments (I took International Business) was to tour Fuller's, a smaller English brewery and Budweiser's London brewery. After touring each and talking to management, we had to write a 1 page paper comparing the two.

Inside Fuller's kegging room

My International Business Class taste testing at Fuller's

One thing that was important for me to do while abroad was to visit Scotland. My family is one of the "original clans" in Scotland and I really wanted to do a weekend tour of my heritage. I took the train to Glasgow, Scotland on a Friday. That Saturday, I did a day tour that took me through the Highlands of Scotland. I took a cruise on Loch Ness and did a little "Nessie Hunting". The next day, I visited the town of "Hamilton" and saw a few of the castles my family originally built. I took the train to Edinburgh, Scotland that night. I toured the city and visited a kilt making factory. I've said ever since that if I ever run away, you can find me in the Highlands of Scotland!!

Urquhart Castle of the coast of Loch Ness

Urquhart with Loch Ness behind it.

Kilt factory.

My little piece of Heaven.. Scotland :)

I've discovered a hidden talent...

One of my favorite places to be in the US is Huntington Beach, California. It just feels like home when I go out there (maybe because I was born there...?). It's an fast and easy flight out there and since I have a sister that still lives there, I am able to make the trip pretty frequent. I decided to spend a 5 day "weekend" out there for Memorial Day. I flew in on Friday and spent the afternoon with my sister. She picked me up from the airport and we grabbed a quick lunch before heading back to her office. I hung out at her office and studied for my GMAT until she was ready to go. I went to dinner on Friday night at a place on the beach next to the HB pier. On Saturday, my sister and I went to Old Navy for $1 flip flops before grabbing breakfast at the "famous" Sunny's. I couldn't resist texting my brother Casey to rub it in that Stacy and I were enjoying a Sunny's omelet and mimosas! On Saturday afternoon, I went to Newport Beach and enjoyed some day drinking at a few bars on the beach.

Me on the beach in Newport.

We went to a friend of Stacy and Brian's on Saturday night to grill out and watch the UFC fight.

My sister and I at Mike's house.

On Sunday, Jessica (my niece), Stacy, and I went to downtown Huntington Beach to do a little shopping. We came back to their house and soaked up some sun in their backyard. On Monday, we all woke up early, packed up a cooler and blankets and headed to the beach. I asked Brian (brother in law) if he would teach me a little bit about surfing. Sarah and I want to take surfing lessons in Sydney and I was bound and determined I was going to catch a wave while in Australia. The weather was a little cloudy and "cold" on Monday morning when we got to the beach. By afternoon, it was sunny and hot again. Right before we packed it up, Jessica and I headed into the water armed with a surf board. GUESS WHO STOOD UP ON THE FIRST WAVE!?! Yup... I'm pretty sure I'm a natural. Maybe it has something to do with being born in a hospital across the street from the beach!? Jessica just explained to paddle when I saw a wave coming and jump up with I thought I was "on the wave". Stacy was actually on the phone with my dad when I was in the water and started freaking out that I was surfing on my first try. My dad has decided he might lose his other daughter to beautiful Southern California...

Ethan soaking up some sun

I look like a pro carrying my board right?

YES!!! I CAUGHT A WAVE!!

That dreaded GMAT prep book goes everywhere with me... even the beach!

On Monday night, we went to Spaghetti Bender.. one of my favorite old memories of California. I have so many memories of eating there!

Jessica and I outside Spaghetti Bender

Overall, it was another great weekend filled with the beach, the sun, shopping, eating at all my favorite places, and time with my family. I'm getting pretty used to this California lifestyle! It was nice telling my sister "See you in 11 days" instead of "goodbye!". We are flying out to spend a day and half before our flight to Fiji. I'm SUPER excited to share one of my favorite domestic beach towns!

The ending of a great weekend.. GMAT prep book and mimosas on the flight home!