Mid trip

This past week Rbill and I took a little driving trip on over to SoCal on occasion of Ellen's College Graduation from Occidental. On Friday I got to see my dad for the first time in a long time and realized we may look alike. Not a bad visit.

Jack has a baby!

From snake man...

...to baby man. April 7th, 2008 Sophia Jasmine Taylor was born to Jack and Sendy. 6 pounds, 6 ounces. Wowsers. I'm an aunt! Jack's a dad! Crazy! Pictured here is Jack holding his kiddo in the hospital.

Sophia!

By the way the clouds looked kinda cool here in fayetteville today.

Myself all fancied up pushing my step-brother lucas around. This was either at 9pm or 4am.

I beat about 13 kids and my mom at this game of horse racing and won the grinch.
Inside Ceasars Palace.

My first slots!
My lucky table with my lucky number 17. I couldn't have done it without my blue dress, a pair of sparkly high heels and a fella named Angelo.

Also note the man in the background shaking his finger at me saying, "No, no, no. No camera at the roulette wheel!"

Christmas!

Myself, my mother, my stepdad and his two sons all spent christmas together this year and it was quite the experience. Long story short, I'm goin' to vegas in a week.
My stepdad Jeff and his son my stepbrother Amos opening up stocking stuffers. What could it be? More breath mints?
Dessert, lemon icebox pie...mmmmmmm.....

Bocas del Toro

Well the first thing I did once classes were over was buy a bus ticket to Panama where I met my brother in Bocas. I stayed there a few days and then went with him to some sort of Peace Corps party in a tiny town called Miramar, that most likely held around 20-30 families. Or at least that's how it appeared. It took 20 minutes of people seeing my brother, his friend and I sitting outside of one of two convenient stores in the town and yelling into the house next to us, "hey, you've got costomers" before a woman in her late 50's wandered out lazily and unlocked the store. And then in this store we managed to find some dusty cans of tuna and every brand of mayonaise you could dream up. mmmmmm....
Road behind Mondo Taitu, the hostel I stayed at in Bocas.

A bar called Shipwreck because it was built over a sunked ship. Go figure.
Sunrise.
The view from the hostel in Miramar.
Hitching a ride in the back of a truck from Miramar to another village in order to get a bus to David, from where I went straight to Panama City.

Merry Christmas

Christmas was great. I got an amazing pair of new slippers, along with a long anticipated brand new splitting ax. It was a good day.


mmmm...food and wine.
My dogs are the cutest.
Who loves to chop wood? I love to chop wood. How I wish I were a lumberjack.

Bangladesh

Well as some of you know, my brother Jack is in Bangladesh as a Peace Corp volunteer. He has been updating all of us that know him and I must say that I am in awe at almost everything he writes about. I am so excited that he is up to what he is, that I am going to dedicate this very long picture post to him. Here are some photos of what it is like where he's at, and if you get the chance, I highly recomend you check out his blog that he updates roughly every other week. You'll not be disappointed in his stories. www.jacksontaylor.blogspot.com

If your curious, and you don't know, Jack is the tall one in offwhite.

I'm pretty sure these are bees.

And here is your classic school bus.

so jealous

Jack took all of these photos himself. Hearing about and seeing what he is doing just gets me all shook up and excited about getting out of school and doing this myself.
The local bazaar. He says that this is a very calm photo, and that usually you can hardly walk due to the crowds.