The positive side of eating out alone...

There are a few pluses to eating out alone and I just wanted to share them...

1. You can sit wherever you want to.

2. There is no such thing as double dipping when you are the only one eating something.

3. No mindless chatter.

4. No one to eat your food because yours is better than theirs.

5. The entire desert is yours.

6. When the food comes out it is hot because you did not have to wait for anything else to be cooked.

7. You can play with your phone and text as much as you want to.

8. You can read a book and it is not considered rude.

9. You are treated like a queen (or king) by the server.

10. The bill is less.

I got to eat this all by myself!!!

Team J.E.T.

I want to honor my husband Jimmy Eapen by helping to stop diabetes!! I would like to get a team together in honor of him let me know if you would be willing to walk with me or support me in this walk. If you know someone who would want to do this please share it with them as well.


Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes

Looking at things from another perspective...

While I have been in Punta Cana I have been forced to see the blessings in my life. I have talked to some of the staff and I can't believe what they go through just to work. First of all they all work for 12 days straight then only have 3 days off. Some of them live off of the property and the ones that do travel  45 minutes just to get to work and back. And from what I have seen the mode of transportation is a bus so they have to wait for a bus to pick them up as well on the way back home. And the ride is not what you would call smooth...haha.  The ones that live here are here for the 12 days without their family. They have a room to stay in here on property and while I have not seen one of them I am sure it is nothing like mine. One of the staff told me that they are not even air conditioned (I feel the need to clarify that he was not complaining I asked if they had AC).

 I am hot in my room with the AC on and the fan blowing straight on me. The humidity is awful here I feel sticky no matter what I do. I can't imagine sleeping without AC in this climate. When Jimmy and I both had jobs we came home to each other at night, we did not stay at our work place for 12 days without the other one. We did not have to leave children with our parents in order to even have a job. I can't imagine the stress of leaving your family behind just to support them, or the stress of both people working and still not having enough to make ends meet.

I have been a bit stressed out at work the past month or so but I am sure it does not even compare to the stress that the locals here deal with on a daily basis. I am sure their wages are nothing compared to even what people get on welfare in the States. And yet I never hear one complaint. They are happy to have a job at all!

When you see the way other people live in a 3rd world country you are forced to count your own blessings for sure.

One year down and a lifetime to go...

I really can't believe it has been a year without the love of my life. I remember thinking that this day would never come. Yet here it is July 15, 2012...I feel a bit speechless. On one hand I just want this day to be done and over with on the other hand I am sitting on the beach looking out at the water thinking I need to enjoy this as much as possible.

at 7am I was woken up to no power in my room therefore I was sweating when I woke up...I look at this as God's way of telling me to not sit and wallow in my room all day long. So I came out to the beach to write this long awaited blog post. I feel a sense of calm and peace as I sit here alone with the beautiful wind blowing against me & the smell of the salt water in the air. Thank you Lord for this peace!

As I was driven to this resort I could not help but think that Jimmy would have loved the adventure of the hour long drive over bumpy roads all while dodging bikers, horses and the occasional oncoming bus. He would have seen this as fun, I saw this as miserable due to my motion sickness but I tried to make the best of it by talking to the guy sitting next to me that worked for the travel company.  This is also something Jimmy would have done...talk to anyone and everyone. I find myself doing that more and more, talking to strangers. I am gaining the love of others that he had and I am very thankful for that. Again I praise God for changing my character as there is much to be changed in me.

On Friday I went to a memorial lunch in honor of Jimmy it was so hard for me to go however I think it was good for me to be able to talk to people that could reminisce about who he was with me.  This lunch was at his workplace which is connected to the hospital where he died. I can't even explain the hurt in my heart when I saw that hospital again. As I drove there I had 2-3 small panic attacks and cried almost the entire way in the pouring down rain. I am blessed that I made it alive...praise God again He has kept me safe this year!!

I think that today is not going to be as bad as Friday was as that day felt more like the one year anniversary as he died on a Friday. I am going to make the most of this trip and honor Jimmy by going outside of my character a little bit and being adventurous. We will see what I translate that to...maybe just taking some of the classes offered here, maybe finding some kind of tour I can go on or maybe skydiving...ha ha.  We shall see.

Please be praying that I do whatever the Lord has for me, I change whatever I need to in order to become more like HIM, that I deal with anything that the Lord wants me to deal with and that my heart is put back together by HIM and HIM alone. Pray that I let HIM guide my next step onto whatever HE has for me. I want to be in HIS will not my own.