Happy Birthday Sadie!!

Happy Birthday to Sadie!!!! The best dog in the whole wide world! Sadie is my golden retriever who I got on my 10th birthday. She has been there for every major event in my life and is truly the best dog in the whole world. Unfortunately, she can't come live in the keys with me so she stays at my parents house with her brother and sisters, Leo, Hershey, and Cayo. Today, Sadie turns 11 years old. I miss her so much and I'm so sad I can't be there on her birthday :( I'm sure she will get lots of love from the rest of the family though!

In her honor...I thought I would post some of my favorite times with Sadie.

This is Tyler and Sadie on the night before I left for the keys for my internship....how sweet!

Spending Christmas with Sadie is always fun too! She loves her Christmas attire

Poor thing! Tyler likes to abuse her...but shes a good sport

This is one of my most brilliant ideas ever! I decided I wanted to paint with Sadie so I could have some artwork by her. Well it ended up raining that day, but I was so determined to do it, I tried anyway. It ended up taking my entire family and it was much more work than I thought, but the end results were def. worth it! haha...So here she is getting some green on her feet to start.

I then walked her down the tarp with paper lined up on it....she missed most of the paper :)

But after some time and effort, the hard work paid off...it's pretty cool how it turned out!

And these are my favorite pictures of us! Shes so sweet!

Well Sadie, sorry I can't be there for your birthday, but I am thinking of you! Miss you and love you! Maybe mom and dad will take you on a car ride for your birthday present!

Sweet Theresa :)

I love my job. Most people think my job is wonderful and happy all the time. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case. We do work with animals that have shorter life spans than us humans so we have to deal with the circle of life. As happy as it is when we get new animals in or have new little ones born into the family, it is extremely sad when one of our family members passes away. On Wednesday morning, May 4, 2011, Theresa, DRC's oldest dolphin, passed away due to complications of old age. Theresa was amazing. We don't know her exact age (yet) since she was not born here at DRC, but we believe she is in her mid 50's. Dolphin's natural life expectancy is only about 25 so she has more than doubled that.

Theresa was wild caught back in the mid 50's. She spent 8 years with the Navy down in Key West. She broke out of her habitat there and swam up to Milton Santini's Flipper Sea School (which is now DRC) twice! On the second time she did this, the navy decided that she clearly wanted to be here in Marathon, so Milton Santini took her in. She has lived there ever since. This means she was there when this facility opened, there when it was sold to a researcher wanting to study cognition, and then when the facility was passed on to Mandy and his wife Jayne who are the current Presidents of DRC. Theresa has been there longer than any other dolphin and person at DRC. She is the true "founder" of our facility. She has taught all the trainers so much over the years. She had a wonderful spirit, loved to interact with the guests and her trainers, and always knew how to put a smile on your face. One of my good friends Jill, who comes to visit DRC often wrote this about Theresa and I thought it was so sweet I asked her permission to post it here on my blog...

Things I learned from Theresa:

1. Be silly every day.

2. Treat everyone like a friend

3. steal kisses whenever possible

4. don't always do what is expected of you

5. treat life like a game

6. be lighthearted

7. laughter is a great way to solve any problem

8. stop taking yourself so serious

9. love your friends and family with fierce protectiveness

10. be grateful for the little things

As you can tell Theresa was an amazing dolphin and will always have a special place in my heart. Her spirit will never be forgotten and will continue to shine at the Dolphin Research Center!

Happy Easter!

Happy Belated Easter everyone!! I had such a wonderful Easter this year. I was kind of worried because I was afraid I was going to be by myself, but I wasn't at all. I found out they do a sunrise service here on Sombrero Beach at 6:30 am! Man, was that early, but totally worth it! It was so beautiful and I went with Sam and Sarah. It is really cool because all the churches in Marathon participate. One church will do the music, the other will do the sermon, the other did communion...it was great! Pastor Peggy from the Methodist church I've been going to for bible study did the message and she was great! It was over by 7:30, so we all went to breakfast after. It was a wonderful way to start the day! We were open at DRC on Easter so I did have to work, but it wasn't too bad of a day. That night, I went over to Catherine's for an Easter dinner! Her family has taken me in as one of their own and they are all such a blessing! We had a great time and I got to play with Ella and Jack and all their new Easter presents. Here are a few pictures from that night.

Me and Ella. She was showing off her new Disney princess stickers :)

We did that bunny puzzle at least 20 times throughout the night! She was so proud of it! haha

And here she is showing off :) She's so cute!

For dinner we had ham, cheese potatoes, green beans (which I ate!!), salad, bread, and bunny cake for dessert! It was so yummy :)

So even though it was my first Easter away from the family, I still had a wonderful day celebrating Jesus and everything he did for us! What a huge praise!

Then, I had Tuesday and Wednesday off. On Tuesday I went to bible study in the morning. I am still enjoying it so much and I'm getting so close with the ladies there. They are so great and I look forward to Tuesday mornings! Next I went grocery shopping and picked up Tyler's favorites things...Oreos and Steaks! haha. Guess you know what we will be eating next week when he's here! And finally I decided to go to the beach for a while. I'm really starting to see these tan lines and I know I need to work on getting rid of them.

Wednesday I had my staff meeting in the morning and then I came back home and took my test for American Lit. It wasn't too hard, but it was not something I enjoyed, I'll put it that way. The best part of the day was that Catherine came to get me and her mom and Pete, her step dad, took us out to lunch! It was such a great surprise and they are just awesome people! They all love Jesus so much and it's so nice to spend time with wonderful friends and family. Then, Catherine and I drove all over Marathon looking for an alterations place. I need to get Amy's bridesmaid dress altered, but for some reason, all the alterations places were closed on Wednesdays! What are the odds?! Oh well...guess we'll go next week. Once I got back home, I went on a cleaning spree. I went and got Jeff's nice dyson vacuum and cleaned the floors in my place. It is so hard to get everything up, because the floor is brick and all the dirt goes into the groves in between the bricks. That dyson...man let me tell you! Worked like a charm! Here is a picture of the beast...

My room is so small, I just had to slide it around like 5 times and I was done! haha...it worked so great. After I cleaned I lit my candle my mom brought me and enjoyed the clean house! Now my room is all nice and clean for Tyler to arrive :)

As I was going back downstairs from returning the vacuum, I ran into Sarah and Dave. They were on there way to go look at a house they are interested in buying. They invited me to come along so I could see the house too. I felt like their daughter tagging along...It was so cool to look around the house, but I had such a hard time imagining my own stuff there and not the people's stuff. It was fun to go to though. We stopped by Sparky's on the way home and I had a salad for dinner...can you believe it?!

Things at DRC are going really good too. I'm getting to do more and more everyday and we've been so busy lately that I've been able to watch a lot of crazy session and learn from them. The dolphins will get bored if you don't do things out of the box and I've been able to watch so many great trainers so such cool things I would have never thought to do. I just love it there and feel so at home. I am so blessed to have the job I do and be so passionate about it at the same time!

BEAR UPDATE: I have a few because he has been making me laugh so many times lately. First, this is him while I was taking my test...he really wanted to help me with my school work so I could hurry and get it done :)

haha...and then this is his new favorite spot!

He has a bed up there and everything and his favorite thing about it is that he can get closer to the moths that fly around in the light fixture...haha. I thought he was going to fall off while he was chasing this one...

He is so crazy, but still the best roommate :) I can't wait for him and Trigger to become buddies and be able to hang out together. That should be fun!

Well thanks for reading! Everyone go to bed early so you can wake up for the Royal Wedding tomorrow at 4 am!!

Mom and Drew come visit!!

Mom and Drew got to come visit me for Friday and Saturday. It was a short trip, but we had a lot of fun! I think they had a good time hanging out at DRC and on the beach. It was such beautiful weather and we had a blast! Here are some pictures from their visit :) Enjoy!

Still Counting the days...getting closer!

So I am at work at the hotel again, but today is better than yesterday! It was chaos here last night! I swear everyone got together and decided to complain about everything they could possibly think of! Here are a few of my favorites just from last night...

1. "Who the **** made me pay $200 a night for that dump?" - my response..."well sir I'm not sure who you spoke with, but no one here forces anyone to do anything."


2. "We've had it! We are leaving first thing in the morning! I can't believe you all allow a bee to be in the shower! My wife is allergic to bees. If she got stung, we would be driving to the hospital!" - haha...I mean, I don't think I told the bee to come in and I'm sorry that you left your door open all day and allowed the bee to come join you!


3. "I am very disappointed in the room. We were promised a direct ocean view and when I step onto my balcony, I have to turn my head to see the ocean!" - haha...aw poor thing. And no this guy didn't have on a neck brace.


4. "I hate to be negative, but we aren't going to be able to stay here because there are lizards in the room" I said "well sir, this is the keys and there are lizards everywhere. We try to spray them so they aren't as bad, but it is just the way it has to be here." He got all mad and started yelling saying, "If he ran the business, he would at least make sure there were no lizards in the room before he even bought new towels...yeah, because that makes sense....

Ok, Ok...one more!

1. 5. "I'm here to check in" - the guy gives me his reservation and it says, "date of arrival: April 13, 2011" I said "Sir, this reservation is for the 13th not the 17th and unfortunately, we are sold out so I am unable to give you a room tonight." The guy responds with "WHAT! I demand that you give me a room for the night! How could this place have such horrible customer service skills!" --How could this place have such dumb guests?"

Haha..so that is what I've been dealing with last night. Tonight on the other hand it is dead! The phone has rang maybe twice and I've had one couple come in needing a room. I'm counting down the days for multiple events to happen! Here is my list of countdowns...

• Mom and Drew come visit- 2 days (well 1 but they wont be here until really late on Wednesday night so its more like 2).


• Sunrise Easter service on Sombrero Beach with Sam, Catherine and her family, and possibly some others- 5 days


• Tyler comes down- 14 days


• I fly home- 56 days


• Drew's High School Graduation- 57 days


• My 22nd birthday- 59 days


• Amy and Zach's Wedding- 61 days


• I fly home again- 79 days


• Mine and Tyler's Wedding!!!- 87 days!

There is lots to look forward to and get excited about! Also, Jeff, my landlord who is wonderful, bought Tyler and I a new dresser so Tyler had space to put his clothes. Here is a picture of it! We love it :)

BEAR Update: Well its a short one, but I thought it was cute. The other day Sarah and I took Sadie and Bali (her 2 great Danes) on a long walk around the neighborhood. When we came back, I wanted to show Sarah how the gate in our yard worked. We walked the dogs over there and Bear of course came running to the door and started meowing at the door. Sadie ran over there and they started playing through the door! Sadie and Bear became friends a while back when my roommates came and Bear had to stay at Sarah's house. Sadie cried when Bear left! haha...it was so cute to see them through the door like that. I'll try and get some video or picture of the two of them together which is hilarious!

Well, thanks for reading and I hope everyone has a wonderful night! tomorrow

Living the life...counting down the days :)

Hi everyone!! So sorry I haven't written in such a long time! I honestly just forgot about it and then my friend Ally wrote me a message saying she missed my blog updates, and I thought, I need to update that! So, sorry I haven't kept you all in the loop lately. I haven't done much of anything out of the ordinary. Going to work at DRC, then working at the hotel, and then trying to hang out with as many friends as possible when I'm not working. Work at DRC has been great! I'm am learning so much and I just feel like a sponge! I'm trying to watch as many things as possible to pick up on helpful tips and hints. I brought my camera the other day to work and got these awesome pictures! I've had them on facebook for a while, so many of you have probably already seen them, but I love looking at them still! This is Theresa! She is our oldest dolphin! We believe she could be anywhere from 53-59 years old! The oldest dolphin ever recorded was 60 years old, the oldest in human care is 58. The average life expectancy is only 25...so she is awesome! Now, funny thing about Theresa...when I was an intern, she got very sick! I mean...really sick and I thought she wasn't going to make it. When I left she was still sick and I was so sad to leave. Well low and behold, she bounced back and is still kicking! We don't know her exact age because she was wild caught. She was then brought to the navy and spent about 8 years in the navy. When she came to live at DRC her age said "adult" so no one knows how old she really is. She is fully blind and naps a lot but other than that, shes great! We just let her do whatever she wants, because what grandma wants, grandma gets! :)

Here I am getting a dorsal pull from Delta and his mom Aleta! Delta is so adorable and loves dock time! I will sometimes go down on the dock when I have free time (with no fish) and just hang out with him. He'll come over and bring me his toys and we will play for 30-45 min. sometimes! He is only 1, so he is still learning a lot!

Here I am getting a big kiss from Aleta! She is so beautiful and we call her our "diva dolphin" She never has marks or anything wrong with her. If you tell her shes beautiful, she nods her head!

Another hug from Aleta! :)

I have also been spending more time hanging out with some friends on my days off and at night. Catherine and I had a girls day last Wednesday and got lunch and I went with her to get her hair done. Then last night, I had dinner at "Med Lab Jen's" house and Sarah and Dave came over too! We had a blast and I feel so lucky to have such wonderful friends! Well, sorry to cut it short without a Bear update, but I'm at work at the hotel right now and it is so busy here! All 3 hotels are booked full and people are calling every 15 min. wanting a room. I guess that's why they call it "high season" :)

Oh yea...I still have to graduate!

Well these past days off haven't been as much fun as my days before! For those of you who don't know...I am in 2 online classes. DRC needed me to start in January, and I wasn't suppose to graduate until May. So I talked with my advisor, and we worked it out that I could finish online. So the 2 classes I am in are Creative Writing, and Modern American Literature. If you know me the least bit, you will know that these are not my strong points! I am definitely a math and science girl...not literature! So besides working 2 jobs, moving to the keys, and the classes being online, these haven't been the easiest classes for me. I keep forgetting about them, and then I have to rush and do a lot of work all at once. Thankfully, Creative Writing is great! My teacher is awesome and so laid back! Modern American Lit has been awful! My teacher is so mean and always sends these mean e-mail about how we need to work harder and were not putting enough effort into the class...I think the class started with like 40 people in it...it now has 12! Unfortunately, I need this class to graduate so I can't drop it! So yesterday and today I spent all day working on that stupid class.

But I do have to say, today while reading Booker T. Washington's autobiography (or part of it) I was a little inspired by what he said. He said that he noticed over the course of his life that "the people who did the most for others were the happiest, and the people who did the least were the unhappiest." Now I know I don't get too deep, so bear with me here...but I really liked that. It reminded me of how I can better other people's lives and to not always focus on my own. (Now that is the only good thing I can say about that class!)

Yesterday, I did take a break to go to Jamie and Patrick's house for Jamie's birthday. We had a Thanksgiving Dinner! What a great idea! It was so much fun and it did make me thankful for the wonderful friends I have made since moving here. Everyone has been so great and helping me get adjusted, I couldn't ask for better friends! :) And a big Happy Birthday to Jamie too!!! She is so great and has been so wonderful to me! Your the best Jamie ;)

So...on Monday night, I had an interesting encounter....with a SCORPION!! It was the first scorpion that I've seen in my room and I was so scared! I had to call Sarah because I didn't know what I should do. Bear chased it out from under the bed (thank goodness!) but he continued to chase it around my room. I was so afraid he was going to chase it under the refrigerator or somewhere else I wouldn't be able to get to him. Sarah told me to spray it with some type of cleaner to stun it...and then smash the crap out of it! So I did and luckily I killed it, but it was so gross! I can't wait for Tyler to move here so he can handle all the weird Keys Critters that are always around! Here is a picture of it after I killed it...

BEAR UPDATE: So my Bear update was basically that he chased a scorpion around on Monday night. He basically turned into a different cat! He was all in hunt mode with his butt sticking up, and stalking the thing...it was so funny to see! But heres a picture of him just sitting on the pillow on the back of the futon...he just looks so cute!

So needless to say, I didn't go to the beach on my days off this week, but good thing because my beach towel was occupied! :)

I hope everyone has a great rest of their week! :)