Peru Trip 2011

Last year we had the opportunity of going to Peru

with the Hands and Feet Medical Missions 

organization at UTMB.

We had such great time together, and really

enjoyed serving in that capacity Jordan decided to 

join the leadership team in the Spring of 2011. 

During the school year they go on about 2-4

short medical trips on the weekend to Laredo, 

while still planning the week long trip to Peru over

the Christmas break. 

Because of various reasons, I didn't go this year,

but Jordan was able to go thanks to wonderful

donations by family-which we were very grateful for.

This is a youtube overview of the trip to Peru 

one of the students made if you'd like to watch:

Here is a photo from the group inside the church:

There were a total of 25 people on the trip-some pictures

are translators, students and faculty. But this made 

up the team that ran the clinic:)

The clinic was held at this 4story church in the middle of the village.

All in all they had a:

 Laboratory, Triage,

Physical Therapy, Eye Glass Clinic, a Pharmacy

and Medical Exams.

these bags are filled with medications!

It was a long hard journey through 

customs, but they made it:)

the bag on top is a really neat, its a hiking

backpack turned into a Medical Lab

in a bag created by students at Rice University

and they allowed Hands and Feet to

us it again this year. You can read about it here

This is Jordan and Kael showing the students how to use

the glucometer tests from the backpack.

They were able to feature an eye glass clinic

to give out readers for those who needed them.

A lot of sorting and planning went into this, but they

did a great job.

These are the medical students that went on the trip.

Jordan and Kael were the 2 upperclassmen, 

the others are 1st years-hoping they come back

next year;)

There were many other students there as well, they ranged from

nursing students to Physical Therapy. Each played

their part in making the clinic run smoothly:)

Dr. White is the doctor that came with us from 

UTMB. He practices Internal Medicine. Here they

are seeing a patient in one of the exam rooms.

There were other Peruvian doctors that Dr. White had

contact with in Peru that came to help with clinic.

Jordan with Cherie and Sarah-a PA and Nursing student

that came last year. 

gifts from the church:)

Jordan, Brian and Eric-(Eric is the new UTMB

BSM leader-he did a great job)

After 4 days of clinic, they had a tourist day!! These

are some pictures from that.

I think this was meant for me and not the person

that took the picture....hmm...

sharing a small rock.

It was very beautiful there!! We didn't see this area last 

time we went.

I'm not gonna lie, I missed him while he was gone..

They saw over 850 patients in only 4 days of clinic!

 What a blessing to be able to share not 

only medical healing, but also to 

have the opportunity to pray with the 

patients for spiritual healing as well.

One man was led to the Lord, and that made the 

whole trip worth it. Jordan and the

other leaders for Hands and Feet did so

much work planning this trip on top of

a vigorous school schedule, and for that

we are very proud of them!

Year 2 Med School & 5 Year Anniversary

I'm playing catch up from August/Sept..so here it goes:

When the 2nd year of Medical school started, there was a fair at UTMB for all the

newbies coming in for their 1st year. Jordan is on leadership for Hands and Feet Medical

Missions group, and they had a booth at the Welcome Weekend. As you can see from the

pictures, the guys on leadership are.....what's the word? oh yea. weird. haha! I'm 

just kidding, they are a lot of fun=)

 Jordan and Jason hiding behind the booth b/c they're tired of talking to people.

Notice instead of candy, they decided to give out 'Turkey Bacon'....there were only

2 pieces left! It was a hit! =)

 Jordan and I TRYING to take a picture.

From left we have Jordan's friends: T.J., Brazos, Me & Jordan of course, then Josh.

finally got them to leave the photog!

me and Ansley-Ms. P.A. fabulous!!

(I'm going to skip Kelsey's rehearsal dinner and wedding and do that in a separate post)

The day AFTER the wedding on Sept 3rd, we left for our vacay in MEXICO!!! =)

We got to go with our good friends, Taylor and Josh. We had such a blast-it 

was a MUCH needed vacation that went by all too fast, but it was awesome.

First day in the pools!

finally getting to read something other than medical books.

view from our balcony!

Our room had an amazing bathroom, this is the view from the jacuzzi out 

to the balcony. SO NICE=) we loved it! thanks bookit.com!

dinner was so fun every night. all inclusive is the best!

We got to go to this amazingly fun XTREME park!

It had miles of trails that were all zip lining WAYYY up in the air!

It was scary at first, but once you took the first jump, the rest was so fun!

we had to climb all these towers, to then zip line off!

WAY scarier than a roller coaster!

on one they let us go together. I love jordan's face here. lol.

We got to wear helmets. so funny.

some of the zip lines went down and into a fresh water cave! 

good things my camera's waterproof b/c I did not see that one coming!

and some of them had water slides in between!!! =)

At this park you could also take rides on dune buggy's! Jordan got a little

out of control on one of the turns and we had to hitch hike after that. LOL. don't worry, it 

isn't as bad as it sounds, its a closed park. ha. the people behind us were also in dune buggy's.

And the last 2 things we did I didn't take pictures of b/c it was completely in the water and I 

didn't want to test my camera....But what we did was a wooden kayak through underwater

freshwater caves, it was so fun!

And the last one was swimming through the same kind of caves.=)

It was a BLAST! but, man, were we exhausted!! haha.

dinner that night.

we stayed on the beach the next day... 

nice hat josh.

dinner the last night. we didn't want to leave!=)

the SOMS (Spouses of Medical Students) group is BACK in session!

We have some new additions this year=)

We meet once a month at the Sunflower Cafe, I love meeting with these girls

and getting to know them better=)

From left:

Whitney, Amanda, Cayla,

so much has been going on....2011

Wow, I cannot believe it has been so long since I've blogged..but at the same time, I know that I have been so incredibly busy and I am STILL so incredibly busy. I always feel like I have a million and one things

to do, that at the end of the day, sitting down on the computer to blog or do pictures is the last thing I want to do. I guess, I will have to forgo a lot of the pictures like I normally do so I can just write and catch everyone up on what's been going on. 

So I haven't even blogged about this, but around late October/early November I started making shirts. Applique shirts, is what they are technically called. They look like spirit shirts and are just really fun to support whatever you want really-schools, teams, sports, teachers, whatever you like. A lot of teachers had been wearing them at my school and I was thinking about buying another one. Well it dawned on me, hey, I have always wanted to make one of those and now's a good a time as any so why not? So I did. That night I went home, and set out to make my own applique shirt. Well, I did and I really liked it! I was so proud of my work, b/c I have always wanted to get into sewing, but just not sure how. Well everyone at school loved the shirt too-and they started asking, so can you make those shirts? And without even thinking about it I enthusiastically said-YES! And that's when it began....

 Before I knew it I was selling them on Etsy, where I now have my own shop and I sell a lot on there (feel free to check it out! )

r8chel06.etsy.com

 I am blessed to be  receiving orders from people, and am constantly making shirts in my free time. I have my own DBA now, 'Rachel Carl & Co' that does a variety of different things. I am still doing a lot of wedding calligraphy as well:

So I'm very excited about where all of this is heading. I also started giving piano lessons in November at my school and have 5 students. I give lessons after school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. They are all girls and they are really doing a great job. They range in ages from 4-13. I am excited to continue with them, and hopeful that in the future I will be able to have more students.

Needless to say, I guess being the wife of a medical student doesn't faze me much since I have certainly found ways to keep myself busy where I don't notice that he is studying all night when I'm there. I feel that God has really led me to do these things for that reason, among others. Although I do wish I had more time! =) In our house near the master bedroom there is a utility room. I was doing my sewing back there on a table that Jordan made me back in high school, but it was really just getting to be too small and the area back there was cramped b/c it wasn't organized and there was just a lot of stuff everywhere. Since I started sewing it had gotten worse. I spent all my nights back there working, so Jordan was sweet enough to do this for me (it was my birthday present!!)

He took me to Ikea to get this awesome sewing desk and shelves and then put it together and helped

organize this whole room!!!

This is the side view where the washer and dryer are...he also put shelving above

this sink here, but they aren't pictured b/c they weren't up yet.

Closeup look at the sewing desk-it has a 'hidden' table that pulls out and allows

me to work at the side too-that is where I do most of my ironing and stuff.

The awesome white bins are from Ikea, they are made to hang at an angle-totally cool!

*I just had to give Jordan this shout out and post these pictures, b/c he was SO awesome

to do this for me when he is so busy with school and I appreciate it SO very much! 

(Love you babe=)

Christmas was so awesome with our families, it was great to see everyone and get to just

hang out with friends and family in Dallas. We really miss being there, although, we definetely

feel like Galveston is our home right now=) I got to see my friends from High school:

Which by the way, one of my best friends-Lauren Coats is pregnant! (which is why we are touching her

round belly-in case you couldn't figure that one out!!) We are so excited for her! She is due with

her new baby girl, Sawyer, in April!

And we got to hang out with Gabe and Emma one day and go bowling which was SO fun!

We had a birthday at my parents house one night:

and one at the Carl's house another night:

I can't believe I'm 25 by the way!!!!

Jordan and I went with the Carls to see a musical Junie B Jones-it was so funny!!!!

We blew our own glass ornaments in Grapevine...that was an interesting and fun thing to do!

Of course, Madeline had her special time with Zeus:

Christmas morning on the steps-we got to see the Landers on Christmas day only-it was

such a fast time with them=( but it was fun:

It's Hayden's first Christmas:

and Tillie's first Christmas too!

We went to the Transiberean Orchestra with my family!!!!!!

There are tons of pictures on my shutterfly account from Christmas,

carlscorner2.shutterfly.com

If you want to check them out.

The day after Christmas (aka my bday=) we got up early and left to go back to Galveston.

Once we got home, we put away all the Christmas decorations and finished our

packing for Peru. We left around 6:00pm that night to go to someone's house near Houston to

get a few hours of rest before our flight left the next day to Peru.

Yes, I said Peru! Jordan and I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a medical mission trip

with UTMB's Hands and Feet Ministries to Peru. We were there from December 27-Jan 2nd

It was an amazing trip, and such a blessing from God. I am going to write another blog about that

experience. But, I just wanted to catch everyone up on what was going on in my life right now.

Jordan is still, of course, doing so well in medical school. I couldn't be more proud of him and how

hard he is working. I am still teaching at the same school, and I have some pretty bad days,

but I know that it's only for a season and it will get better over time. I did a big Christmas program

in December and it went really well! I will be doing another one in March with the little kiddos, 

it should be interesting.

2011 is already here and we're almost one month through it. I can't believe how the time flies.

I also can't believe my big brother is getting married this April! I am so happy for him=)

For now, that's all I have. Have a blessed evening!