Where oh where has Shub gone?

I've actually had a number of people in the last few months ask me why I have not updated my blog. Look at that! People read it! Who knew.

Anyways, as I knew would happen, I've been very busy this summer. Aside from visiting family, friends, and the boat when I can, I've been on road trips galore. Both with church, with friends, and with family. After coming back from Cali, I spent a week taking church kids to DC, working with non-profit organizations and helping feed the homeless and such. Here's some of my kids making our 50 loaves of zucchini bread for the shelter! Yum!


Another week of church camp brought us to Sharpsburg, Maryland at a Heifer International farm. If you've never heard of Heifer PLEASE check it out. Heifer uses livestock and education to help needy families and villages in over 127 countries become healthy and sustainable. We LOVE Heifer. Along with numerous team-building exercises and farm chores, we learned about vermiculture (worms), how to make rope, how to make candles, and more! Yay Heifer! Check out our farm photos:

Building a rabbit cage!

S'mores:

After our week at the Heifer Maryland, we packed our bags once more and took some high schoolers to Arkansas, to the corporate Heifer Ranch in Perryville, just outside Little Rock. We had an absolute BLAST and though I just spent a week on a Heifer farm, I still learned more than I thought possible. And only in a week! Lord knows what I'll pick up in a couple years.

I did everything from work with beehives and chop down trees to live in an urban slum and sweat my butt off over a cook fire for oatmeal. BUT everything was ok again when I got to play with baby animals. Here's some highlights:

Our AWESOME group in front of church
before the LONG road trip
Beehives! (I'm the short one)

My spot by the lake

Climbing a GIANT ladder meant to help with

teamwork and pushing personal limits

A little something I fell in love with

And a final image of Shub on a farm:

Basically the weeks at Heifer showed me how truly proud I can be of my kids, and also taught me LOTS of interesting things that I might be able to use in Africa. (EeEek!)

SPEAKING OF WHICH, there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about something else I'm going to miss while in the Peace Corps (again, if I'm lucky enough to get invited). Here's the most recent news from these people ---->



I got a call a little over a week ago saying I received my medical clearance. YES. This is apparently one of the biggest hurdles of the application process. So my records have been sent to the Assessment & Placement Office, I updated them on the things I've been doing this summer with Heifer, and now I get to WAIT some more :)

In the meantime I also signed up the take the GREs in October, so I need to get my butt in gear and start studying. It's not easy when you're out of college. Hell, it wasn't easy in college.

So that's what's up on the Shub side of town. I hope everyone is having a FANTASTIC summer (or start of school year) and I hope to see everyone soon.

Love you all!

<3 Shub :)

Back on the East Coast baby!

Hooray! Angie and I finally made it home safe and sound. We had an AWESOME trip across the country, and missed LaceFace every step of the way. My last post ended with some photos of the drive into Montana. Big Sky Country is absolutely beautiful, and I can totally see why people go there to get away. We spent a very long day in Yellowstone, and enjoyed every second of it. As with everything I've seen on these cross-country road trips, if you ever get a chance to visit Yellowstone, YOU SHOULD. Here's why:

Kepler Cascades

Buffalo friends

Old Faithful erupting

The end of a rainbow!!!

These are just a few of the many photos we took at Yellowstone. The scenery just kept getting better and better, and therefore I will post the pics on Facebook as well :)

After Montana and Yellowstone we continued east into South Dakota and found this!:

It's Mount Rushmore! We had an awesome time visiting with the presidents and eating some ridiculously good soft-serve. We had a lovely night in Rapid City, SD and promptly drove to Minneapolis the next day. One night there and we left for Indiana! One night in Indiana and we made it back home late on Friday night. Whew! Long drive. But so worth it. Go HERE to see everywhere we stopped. ALSO, look at this (green is with Lacy and orange is with Angie!) :


Angie flies back to Florida on Wednesday morning :( and till then we are hanging around MoCo. It feels awesome to be home, but I didn't realize how much I'd miss San Diego! If you are around town this summer, I would LOVE to see you. Please call!

Happy Summer and GO TERPS.

Love, Shub :)

Road trip home!

So Angie made it safely to San Diego and we are successfully on the road! After a day of visiting the city of SD, and saying some very hard goodbyes, we made a short 6 hour drive to San Luis Obispo, on the central coast, where I go just about every other weekend. Totally knowing my way around, I took Angie to my favorite place, Montana de Oro, where we hiked the cliffs and enjoyed the waves one last time.

After a busy day in the tidepools, we returned to clean the car and say goodbye to my little cousins. It was really tough saying goodbye to them, even though I know I will see them in October. Here's one final picture of my beautiful AJ showing me how much she loves me:

After a final night in SLO town, we drove to Fair Oaks, CA, outside Sacramento (where Aunt Susie and Uncle George live) for the night. Bot going in that direction I had to visit Google one last time, so that's where we made our lunch stop.

Next day we finally hit the road out of California, and made our way into Boise, ID, with some beautiful scenery through Lake Tahoe:


and some not-so-beautiful scenery through all of Nevada:


Today we got up and drove another 9 hours to our current location, Bozeman, Montana, known for Montana State University and it's big-horned sheep (which we saw at a rest stop). Driving through the mountains of Montana is one of the most gorgeous and scenic places I've ever been, and though the towns may be small and often abandoned, they don't take away from the views out here.

Tomorrow we are off to Yellowstone for the day. We can't wait for more picture-worthy scenes, and are confident that tomorrow will have plenty.

I hope everyone is doing well! I am going to be home uber-soon and can't wait to see people :) Miss you!

Love, Shub :) (and Angie!)

PS, the guy we are staying with here in Bozeman was in the Peace Corps! Hooray!!!