Seriously joking

What a great trip. We did somethings during these last two months that we will probably never get a chance to do again. I just wanted to write down some things we both learned on this trip and what God has shown us through it.

-Aaron -

1) God always provides. From the moment God spoke to us to do this trip, we have had nothing but favor. Every obstacle was over come with faith and every impossible thing that needed to be done God took care of. We had a place to live, we had jobs, we had money, we had similar schedules, we had a car, and we had the time of our lives.

2) I love my wife. She came out to the other side of the country to do a job that she knew very little about and did it wonderfully. We really enjoyed our time together so much and I have really learned to be a better husband on this trip.

3) I am going to be a good doctor. God took away a lot of fear and apprehension through this trip. I got to prove myself in a place I didn't know and I did very well. God really provided a lot of confidence to me every day I worked.

4) God has called us to Tucson. We miss our friends and our family and our church in Arizona so much. We missed the truth and hope of the Word being poured into us constantly by our church and I really missed worshipping with my bass every weekend. It was very hard to be without the friendship and the covering that we have back home and we're incredibly excited to go back.

-Charity-

1) God always provides. God provided me with a husband that fears the Lord seeks after Him and in turn will provide for me. This trip was an undeniable example, once again, that I can trust in God, and trust the husband that he gave me. Every detail of trip was covered and safe and fun and beyond anything we had hoped for.

2) Aaron is my best friend. I think it is rare in a marriage for a couple to be placed in a situation so unfamilar that it forces you to reflect on the relationship you have. I learned that I love just being with my husband. Just us, no friends nothing comfortable or familar just us. We are good together we have fun together, and we really love each other. It has been an amazing epiphany.

3) I am a good nurse. I worked in a very different hospital had a very different job description with a very different culture of collegues and patients, and I was good at it. People liked me ( they really liked me).

4) I love Tucson! I love my church I love my friends I love my job. Though I love to travel and will desperately miss our weekly trips and the excitement of big cities, Tucson is my home where my church is that I need so much and absolutely where God has called us to be.

And now for the joking. We took way too many pictures on this trip. More pictures than you should ever show one person if you want them to remain your friend. But our favorites were the ones of just random sign and places we found. So, for our last blog, here is a collection of our favorite pictures that just didn't fit anywhere else.

Dr. Lambert, you're needed.

I think "pungent" is a better word.

The Prada store in SoHo. Half still life, half skate ramp.

The next musical we're going to see when we go back to NY. "Puttin on the RIIIIITZ!"

NO SOUP FOR YOU!

Socks for $75 a pair? What a BARGAIN!





Aaron imitating statues: a collection.





The famous GIANT HAND of Maine along with the famous GIANT FOOT.

"4000 gallons of you know what"

Seriously.

Big Lights, Big City

We got back from New York 5 days ago and needed 5 days of rest to recover from all we did. What a cool trip and what a cool city. We stayed with my family in Manhattan and just got to go everywhere. We took a train over to NYC and got off at Penn Station. The first thing we saw were gigantuous buildings. I'd heard before that "ooh, New York skyscrapers are huge!" and didn't think much of it, but man, these things are enormous. We looked up and watched the clouds go by the buildings and felt like the whole earth was moving.

The first touristy thing we did was go ice skating at Rockefeller Center. Right next to NBC studios, Radio City Music Hall, and the hallmark of many famous movie scenes, it was pretty surreal. It took us a little time to adjust to ice, but we had fun. There were all levels of skaters there including a 50-year-old lady having flashbacks to a "routine" from her childhood in the middle of the ice. It was funny and sad all at the same time.

I, on the other hand, had flashbacks to the movie Blades of Glory and skated my heart out.

We went up to the Empire State Building at sunset and got to see all of NY during the day and at night. Aside from being so windy I thought Charity might blow away, it was beautiful. And cold.

One of the highlights of the trip was going to a Broadway play. We saw Wicked which was a prequel to the Wizard of Oz. I've never been to musical before and I was prepared to suffer through it for my wonderful wife. I ended up really liking it and wouldn't mind going to see another one. Good thing I'm married or that might come off really gay. The show had great singers and a really good storyline that fit in well with the old movie. In short, it was wicked awesome.

Speaking of wicked awesome, while walking through Central Park, Charity looked over and saw a baby that she recognized. The baby was being pushed by a guy who roughly resembled Ben Affleck. That's because he was Ben Affleck, but somehow Charity recognized the baby first. I walked up real close to him to make sure and Charity Googled photos of him on that day to see if he was wearing the same clothes. Sure enough, it was him, right down to the Red Sox hat. We also saw Colin Quinn and the fat guy from Shaun of the Dead. A veritable Who's Who of Who Cares. But I cared.

We also ate at some killer restaurants. Awesome Italian food, killer NY pizza, a cool nightclub with a live swing band, and my favorite, the Carnegie Deli. They sold their sandwiches by the cow. Charity ate half a sandwich and made up for an entire year as a vegetarian in college. I ate an entire sandwich, Matza ball soup, cole slaw, and banana cream pie. Now do you believe I actually eat?

We toured through the city and got to see Times Square, Chinatown, Greenwich Village, SoHo, Little Italy, the Brooklyn Bridge, Ground Zero, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, and so much more that it would be hard to describe it all. We got to see a Hispanic heritage parade on 5th Ave (Alex, we thought of you). And yet we still didn't see everything. We'll have to go back.

And yes, Charity did buy shoes in New York. They're red heels that she wore to the Broadway show. She got ruby red slipper comments all night.

Thanks again to Mom and Dad for a great trip.

Love,

Aaron and Charity (and some other people too)

Maine-iacs

Where do I start? Maine is like no place I've ever been to, but it's like every New England town I've ever seen in movies with beautiful fall colors, bays and rivers, and little towns with buildings as white as its citizens. Slightly different from Baltimore.

We stayed with Charity's Aunt Jo and Uncle Clyde in their home in East Orland, which is a town that you kind of have to stumble upon if you don't know where you're going. Uncle Clyde proudly showed off the gas station he referred to as the "business district of East Orland." It is a very quiet town surrounded by lakes and trees and squirrels and turkeys and deer and . . . well, you get the picture. It was great. No computers. Poor cell phone service meant no phone calls. And no work or studying.

So, what do you do in a secluded town? Everything! We hiked, ran, canoed, kayaked (is that a word?), and even swam in a freezing pond. All of this surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen.

And what did I do while Charity did all of the athletic stuff above? I ate. I ate homemade everything in sight. And you can't go to Maine without having lobster, so we went to place with awesome lobster rolls. They were so good, you can see my neck veins in this picture.

None of these pictures of me eating are intended for comedy or to gross anyone out. They're simply proof that Charity feeds me.

We spent a lot of time in high altitude. We went up Cadillac mountain, Great Pond Mountain, and a very tall bridge with an observatory that looked over the town of Bucksport. We also got to visit many of the original birthplaces of . . . Charity's family. Most everyone I met in Maine grew up within a few miles of each other so it was cool to see the famous family landmarks like birthplaces and old houses.

We also got to visit the Fort (FORT! FORT!). Fort Knox in Maine is an old revolutionary war fort that was never actually used but has a lot of history nonetheless. Uncle Clyde gave us his guided tour which included him sneaking into fort after hours as a kid and tossing garbage cans down the hallways. (Uncle Clyde is in his 70s now, but you'd never know it when you see him lift a metal canoe over his head). We even got to hang out in the dungeons areas which were obviously made for smaller prisoners at the time.

And I got shot out of a cannon.

Charity's family was wonderful. I got to meet almost all of her east coast family and everyone approved of me (at least to my face). I even got to meet Charity's 97-year-old great grandmother who is sharper and funnier than most 27-year-olds I know. She told me to be a good doctor and take care of her Charity. She also told Kenda after I left that I was "a good old chap." Awesome.

We had a great time. It's so hard to describe Maine in words that I'm glad we have these pictures. I got made fun of for laying down in the grass, lagging behind while canoeing and carrying my camera everywhere to take these shots, but I know it was worth it.

Love,

Aaron and Charity

Aaron's Job

Is over! I just finished my last shift yesterday. Or is it this morning? I have no clue. After 4 night shifts in a row, Charity and I are both pretty messed up as far as dates and times and years. But anyway, I wanted to drop a quick blog about my hospital (Charity's is soon to follow).

The hospital itself is very cool. The original building was brick and carried a lot of prestige and history. So when time came to expand, no one wanted to tear down the old building. So they decided to build around it. The new building completely encompasses the old one with a really cool atrium effect. Very cool idea. As a side note, these pictures were taken at 3:30am which is why there are no people in the hospital.

I worked here in the Pediatric Emergency Department.

We see anyone from newborns all the way up to a patient's 19th birthday. So I was not able to escape the typical drunk, psychotic, or GYN-inclined patients that the ED is famous for. But we also had our fair share of truly sick kids and I learned a ton on this rotation. I got a much better idea of what a sick kid looks like compared to a SICK kid. And I saw more sickle cell patients than I will see for the rest of my life in Tucson.

As I think we said one before, University of Mayland Medical Center is famous for the Cowley Shock Trauma Center. So famous, that the local news refers to all car accident/stabbing/shooting (sometimes all three) victims as simply going "to Shock Trauma." I got spend 1 afternoon there and it was . . . interesting. The people there have got it together. Everyone knows their role and patients are quickly stablized and shipped off to the OR. And these awesome people do all this incredible work sporting pink scrubs. I think this is what actually makes the place famous.

There are a few other staples to the hospital that make it unique. First is the built in Starbucks. Charity was very jealous. However, the Starbucks closes at 8:00pm which makes NO SENSE to me. The only redeeming thing about the early closure is that a family that works there sells soul food until 1am. And it's GOOD. Fried chicken, ham, collard greens, and hot wings. At 1am, it's like a 5 star restaurant of junk food.

The other piece of weirdness in the cafeteria is the vending machines. They have all the normal things, soda, Snickers, even ice cream and sandwiches. Except for this one. This one sells trashy romance novels. I'm speechless.

All in all, I got what I wanted out of my trip here. I got great training, I got a two letters of recommendation, and I got to see how I perform when I'm outside of my comfort zone. God really encouraged me while I was here and challenged me to pray for all of my patients no matter how nervous was that I might not be able to fix them. I really had a great time. And as for the pink scrubs? I got myself a souvenier!

Love,

Aaron and Charity

West Philadelphia, Born and Raised

We've been spending most of our days recently in Philly on the playground, chilling out max and relaxing all cool. Maybe even shooting some b-ball outside of the school. Not well, but we tried.

We cannot even begin to say how much fun this trip was. Mike, Harriett, and Beth Donovan opened up their home to us as adopted kids and let us stay here for three days. And what a home it is! Eastern Pennsylvania is still very colonial and the houses all show it. They live on Valley Forge mountaint which is the Deer Tick capital of the US. I made Charity check me for ticks nightly. The good thing about having so many deer ticks is that you have so much Lyme disease. Wait, no, you have lots of deer. Everywhere. And they're not afraid of you even slightly. We counted 21 deer on the 2 mile drive home in their neighborhood. But the deer were camera shy, so no pics, sorry.

We took the Harriet VIP tour of Philadelphia which included stops in all of the most important places. Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and Pat's House of Cheesesteaks. Oh man, I miss mexican food, but I can wait longer if I keep finding stuff like this. I promise to keep putting my first bite of anything new on the blog. Charity liked the cheesesteaks so much that she woke up at 3am that night and relived them through horrible hearburn. She's better now and will stick to salads.

Having been to DC, we both think that Philadelphia has way more history and culture. It really stirred a lot of gratitude in me for what a great country we have and how amazing God's providence is to have brought it together. It also made me remember how many random facts about the Revolutionary War I learned as a kid. We even finished it off tonight with dinner at the City Tavern. This is a 200+ year old restaurant that the founding fathers used to hang out at after a hard days work in the Continental Congress. They dress in colonial attire, serve colonial era food, and have beer based on the original recipes that people like Washington and Jefferson used. Rumor has it that after a few pints, THIS is where the plan for the Constitution really happened. The place was very cool, but I did catch one colonial servant girl listening to Kanye West on her iPod. I promised not to tell.

Charity also got a shopping tour from Harriett at King of Prussia mall which is the second biggest mall in America. She is now prepared for New York, so look for those pictures in a weeks to see what she bought . While the girls shopped, I wandered around Valley Forge with a camera and a healthy fear of ticks. It was well worth any ticks I may have gotten. Ticks. (I hate them, sorry, I get all twitchy). Anyway, it was beautiful and I'll post some of them once I get the film (yes, I still own and use a film camera) developed.

By far the most amazing experience of all was a trip to the Philadelphia Art Museum. I think there might be paintings or something in there, but it's home to some of the most famous steps in the world. These steps.

The steps from Rocky. Charity made it all the way up in heels with no problem. I was too busy trying to fake a facial droop for my Rocky statue look alike. But I found something even better. The Italian Stallion himself.

I asked Harriet who comes down to the city all the time and she says she has never seen this guy before in her life. He was just hanging out by the steps and I wanted a picture. He said, "Aaayyyoohhyyeeahhh! Welcome tah Philly!" I almost hugged him. He was nice enough to do the first picture, but then floored me when he agreed to do the Rocky-Apollo picture from the end of Rocky II. For the second time this trip, I cried a little. We still have no idea who he was. Some say he was a angel. A big, greasy, I-Talian tank of an angel.

The Donovans were amazing to us and such a blessing. They really encouraged us while we stayed with them and it was very refreshing to have Godly people speak into our lives while we're out here. Thanks guys. Up next is my last week of work and then off to Maine to visit Charity's family. Maybe we'll be able to sleep when we get back to Tucson.
On a technical note, we changed the blog so that you don't have to log in or be a member to post comments (sorry, for hassle Gramma L). Hopefully, we'll get more posts from back home now. Right?

Love,Aaron and Charity

PS (Brittany, your room is safe.)