The Lost Plates of Jack and Leiana

Thursday Jason dropped us off at the airport with our packed bags. When checking the bags in, my bag weighed in at 49.5 pounds, but we had transferred a few things from my bag to Leiana's at home to get my bag under the 50 pound limit (since hers had been just over 40 pounds), so when she weighed her suitcase, it weighed in at 52.5 pounds. Quick adjustments got a few of the heavy items out of the suitcase into the garment bag and then everything was under weight and we were on our way to the TSA Security check point. I had made a reservation for a checkpoint time slot last week, but we got there a little before our scheduled time. We asked the attendant at the entry point and she said that she could get us in early, so we breezed right through security with our TSA Pre-Check and only a mild bobble when I set my red Reduced Security card down on the laptop on the rollers and was fumbling with the other items that had to go on only to discover that my TSA-Precheck pass card was rolli...

Packing is starting to get serious now. Our bags are filling. We are cleaning things up and out. Study of Waray is happening daily. Jack has given his acronym of MLS a new meaning: Miscellaneous Lackey and Slave. People keep asking me if I am getting excited. I guess in a way I am, but there is more in the way of nerves, panic and doubt. I worry that I don't know enough. I haven't really worked in a hospital, other than a psychiatric one. The Area Medical Advisor  just sent me a list of hospital evaluations for the area I will have. I can contact these doctors. However, what do I say? Ayaw Kabaraka? (Don't worry) I am relying on something the office manager said to me when I stopped to pick up some N95 masks. She said that she always thought I was divinely inspired as a nurse. Since I am working for Him, I need to rely on His inspiration. It has come many times in the past so it will come in the future. God has declared that He is unchangeable. He just has to work with very...

The sad part of starting a new adventures is that you are leaving an old adventure behind. We had our farewell staff meeting at McKnight today. They had such complimentary things to say about me- how I made mandatory training fun and my sense of humor. I have loved that these people have thought I was funny. It is such a novel experience. I guess it means I have found my people. Although, they teach and work with a middle school mentality, so that may not be quite the compliment I thought. They gave me a plant as a farewell. They obviously don't know my skills, or lack thereof, with plants. I can keep people alive, but plants are not people. They don't like excess--excess sun, excess water, excess touching. I know why I am a nurse, not a gardener. My assistant at work will keep it alive for me for when I come back. At least I won't have to blame the eminent demise of this poor defenseless plant on my sons staying home to care for the house.  Jack has had his own hard farewe...

I have discovered that I am not very good at blogging.  We are down to less than 3 weeks until we leave Seattle. Jack's work schedule has changed again and he is semi-working until I finish work as well. However, his job at work is mainly finding all the T-Mobile equipment that has migrated home and returning it to work. Since I had wanted him to clean up all his computer stuff, this mandate makes me very happy. 😀 Jack and I have started learning Waray Waray, the language spoken on the islands we will be on. About 3 million people speak it, which is about to increase by 2. We have all the "goods" down- Good Morning "Maupay nga aga", Good Day "Maupay nga adlaw", Good Evening "Maupay nga gab-i", Good Noon "Maupay nga udto" and Good Afternoon "Maupay nga kulop". (Although Jack is still looking for "Good grief") We are now trying to learn question words, body parts, family, and numbers plus random sayings. We have o...

Jack is down to 3 weeks of work- 12 days and counting. I have 5 weeks but only 16 days of work. This week's adventure is going to Hawaii for 4 days of medical training. It's not for the mission but we will be able to use these skills on our mission if we want. I have been wanting to learn Bowen Therapy, a type of therapeutic massage, for a couple of years and it just works out to do it now. Plus, what could be wrong with Hawaii in May? I have been released from my temple shift coordinator job and my Relief Society counselor job. Now to just get my new secure email account set up and I will start getting on the medical calls for my mission. Jack is slower to shed his extra jobs, but he'll get there eventually.  For now, packing consists of thinking of things I feel like I need to take and throwing it in the suitcase sitting on the floor in my room. No rhyme or reason yet. 

 Welcome to our new blog, a new experience for us. Who knew that coming up with a name would be the hardest part? We had all kinds of ideas: Jack and Leiana's Excellent Adventures, Almost There and Back Again, Smith's Sad Stories, Where in the World are Jack & Leiana Today? We finally decided to just call it the Lost Plates because I am sure we will have many chances to get lost on our adventures. Right now this blog will be dedicated to our Medical and MLS mission to Tacloban Philippines. It hadn't been on our list of places to go but we are excited to be going there. Jack is finally taking me to someplace warm and sunny, or at least warm. It may have more rain than Seattle. We are about 6 weeks from leaving and there is a lot happening in the next few weeks. Stay tune to catch all the adventures.