Brian Regan!

So if you know us, you know that we love Brian Regan. Well we have wanted to go see him before, but in Utah when he comes his show is sold out in a matter of minutes. So when I heard he was coming to Milwaukee I decided to see if there were still tickets left for his show, and there were and still fairly good seats too. So Brad and I decided to slurge because how many times do you actually get a clean comedian show? Before the show we went to this Greek resturante suggested by one of my co-workers. It was a pretty sweet resturante and good food too. Even better was we had the place all to ourselves, probably because it was early dinner on a thursday night. We had a wonderful date night with dinner and a show. And if anyone wants to have a Brian Regan night we are in!

Here is the place we ate, it was called Ouzo's Cafe

Here is Brad's wonderful sampler

And here is the giant horse above my head

And this was how close we were to Brian Regan!!!

Honduras in a nutshell

This last week Brad and I have been on a wonderful adventure filled with hammocks, medicine, concrete, service, and a lot of love. We traveled down to Honduras through the Medical Brigades with MCW. We stayed at a ranch in Nuveo Pariso near Sister Maria Rosa's Orphanage.

The first day we were able to visit the orphanage and see the schools and medical clinic there. We also had some time to visit with the children and play with them for a while.

The next two days were spent on medical brigades. After long drives on windy roads we would set up in the village's school buildings. There were several stations, triage, the doctor, the pharmacy, and the eye exam. Brad was in triage the first day where he got to use his Spanish skills. There they would interview the patient and find out what the doctor needed to look at, they also would take weight, check blood pressure and pulse. We had two wonderful doctors come with us and one Cuban doctor meet us there. After seeing the doctors they would proceed to the pharmacy. At the pharmacy we would look at the medication prescribed by the doctors and package it for everyone (vitamins and toothbrushes and toothpaste were given to everyone we saw), someone then was in charge of explaining to the patient what the medication was and how it should be taken. If a vision test was prescribed by the doctor they would then proceed to the vision room. We had a special eye instrument that would help us find approximate eye prescription. We had brought lots of glasses with us that had been donated by the Lions Club. The second day I was in the vision room and it was my job to help find glasses for each person. So from the approximate prescription from the exam we would try on glasses around that range until we found a pair that work. My Spanish skills are not as good as Brads, but I know how to ask "mas claro o no mas claro" and "mejor o peor". It was nice to be able to see people walk away with something that would really help them see better.

The next two days we went on public health brigades. We went to a small village and helped build no smoke stoves and concrete floors. The stoves were build because the previous stoves would keep all the smoke in the house, the ceilings would be black and so would the lungs of those who lived there. Most houses just have dirt floors, which allow more bugs and of course dirt into the house. The concrete floors will help keep the houses clean and keep out infections and fungus. Making floors was hard work. The concrete was mixed on the ground outside the house and then shoveled into buckets that were carried inside as we leveled it into place. It was a makeshift way of doing concrete, but I guess you take what you can get down there. We finished floors in five houses over the two days we were there. The nice part about this was that you got to be with the people longer and get to know more of how they actually live. All their possessions could fit piled up on one ledge in the house. Most had just the one pair of clothes and some of the kids were without shoes. The kids didn't seem to mind they looked happy and loved playing with us. Though we were helping certain families the kids from the whole neighborhood were there to watch and play. Brad and some of the other guys even got the kids to want to help shovel the cement. With us going and helping these couple households in the village the hope is now that they have seen and help put in floors they will be able to show others in the community how it is done. Overall we had a wonderful time there learning the culture and meeting new people. This is a really well run organization and we look to going back again.

Here are a couple additional pics too.

Lake Pewaukee

So this weekend I forced Brad to take a study break and go on a day trip with me, I had to get out even if it was still below freezing temperatures outside. So the plan was to head to one of the multiple lakes that are just 1/2 hour drive from here. The first lake we picked ended up being surrounded by private property so we detoured to Lake Pewaukee because I knew that you could get to it from the downtown area (you know one of thoes quaint little towns where there is just a couple shops and always parking). So we were just going to hike around the lake, but it was frozen over and we could see people ice fishing and cars even driving across it so we decided to take our hike across the lake. This was the first time I had walked on a frozen lake before so it was fun, except for when you heard cracking sounds (Brad tryed to assure me that was normal but it still scared me). So we walk, slid, and played on the lake for a couple hours. At the end we tried to make ourselves some hot cocoa with our backpaking stove, but Brad ended up spilling most of the water after we waited forever for it to heat up. Good thing by then we were almost back to the car because it was freezing once the sun went down.

Here you can see our path from the shore

Brad is sliding across the ice, it was pretty slick

There was this random tree sticking out off the ice

Snow Angles!

Having fun with our shadows

Brad writes his name in the snow

The sun starts to set

Here is our water heating up for Hot Cocoa (we did it on a little island in the lake so that we didn't melt right through the ice)

The sun set from the island