Surprise!

 In the beginning of February, Jason was invited to the Bechtel Global Business Meeting in Los Angelos. It is a huge honor to be invited to this meeting, there are only aqbout 300 hundred out of thousands of employees invited from all over the world. Of course after we saw that the meeting was in LA our wheels starting spinning thinking that we could both fly home to see family for a weekend before his conference, he could go to the conference and I would stay home for the week. Unfortunately, Jason wasn't allowed to take any additional time off. That's when my surprise visit idea came into play! I wasnt too keen on staying here for a week alone so we decided that I would fly home for the week while he was in LA. I remember someone saying once that there are very few surprises left in life... ever since I heard that I make a point to take advantage of any opportunity I have to surprise the people I love!

Nicole was the only one that knew that I was coming home from our family, she's the best at keeping secrets! :) I flew out March 14 from Gladstone and arrived in Cincinnati the same day (Love when the time change works in your favor!) Nicole had asked Brian to take a ride with her that night, Brian was anxious to see where they were going, when they arrived at the airport Brian asked Nicole if she was taking him somewhere (It was the start of his spring break!). She then told him to guess again, his next guess was right...Jackie is Home!! The three of us plotted how we would surprise my parents when we got home. They were already expecting to facetime with Jason and I that night. We decided to just knock on the door... Dad opened the door and was in complete shock! I dont think he knew what quite to think, he was speechless....all that could come out was..." Does your mother know about this!?" I then started yelling for my mom to come upstairs. She thought it was my voice from the Ipad and began to run for the stairs...where then she saw me standing at the top of the stairs!!

 

During my week at home, I celebrated my 28th birthday with my family, friends and Bucky Boo! It was such a great week catching up with friends from Cincinnati, Columbus, Lexington and Louisville! We are definitely looking forward to our visit in June/July when Jason and I will be home together!

 

 

 

 

Wonderful Sydney of OZ

 

  This past week we enjoyed a wonderful time in Sydney, Australia! Jason needed to take his Certified Safety Professional (CSP) exam and the only city in Australia that offered the test was Sydney. So we decided to make a trip out of it and see the city! Sydney is known for two major attractions, the Syndey Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Our hotel was only a short walk from the two of them so we were able to enjoy their views on multiple occasions.

 

 

We stayed at The Grace Hotel



 

 We decided to take a better look of the wonderful city from the top of the Sydney Harbour bridge as well! We went on a 3.5 hour bridge climb to the top of the bridge. It was 134 meters above sea level, 1,332 steps, 8 ladders to the top!

 

 

We also enjoyed the wonderful food and drinks that the city had to offer.

Jason's favorite pub was the Lord Nelson Brewery, its the oldest hotel in Sydney with some delicious beer!

 

 

 

 We had a celebration dinner at Sake, a japenese restaurant. The sushi was amazing!!

 

 

Jason even got me to try a crab leg!

 

 

The window shopping was fun too! The Queen Victoria Building was absolutely beautiful!

 

 

Chinatown is always a must for us! Jason was amazed by the huge crab that we saw!

 

 

The markets were also fun to walk through and see what all kinds of stuff there is being sold!

 

Socks anyone?? haha

 

We had an absolutely wonderful time and were again reminded of how blessed we are to have had this opportunity to live internationally and experience this wonderful country in the Land Down Under!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Who parked their bloody car there?"

Well, my Monday morning started out just the same as any day. It was raining, so I drove extra cautiously to work, decided to park closer to the door since I didn't have an umbrella, even though I was parking where I shouldn't be, in the visitors spot. I ran to the entrance, then realized I forgot my swipe card so I ran back to my car, grabbed the card, and ran back into the hospital. Started my day by pulling the clinics when there was a knock at the door asking if I drove a silver Ford Falcon. I said "Yes" and began to explain why I had parked illegally due to the rain and no umbrella. When the safety officer interupted me and said that my car had been in an accident. I assumed someone had hit my car in the parking lot and began to get frustrated. (Seeing as the damage still hasnt been fixed due to my first accident, where I was rear-ended due to a long waiting list. The appointment is scheduled for March 18) She proceded to tell me that my car had rolled backwards... (there is parallel parking behind where I parked, so I immediately think...Oh No! it hit another car!) She continues and says that it has rolled up over the curb and has hit a tree!! Then I start to question...how did it roll backwards? I parked it and the car was off! And I went back to it twice this morning!

I was parked two spaces to the right of this car and the white car was not there when the rolling happened. Just to show the distance it rolled- all the way to the tree line.

  We walked out to see the damage and I look in the window of the car and the damn gear shift was in DRIVE!!! I never did put it in PARK!!! The parking lot was fairly flat so somehow, maybe after I went back for the second time and shut the door, it picked up some momentum and began to roll. Luckily, there wasnt any cars parallel parked behind me and thankfully no one was driving past or even worse walking past! And whats even more scary is that there is a metal pole fence in front of the tree that the car went through and was stopped by the tree. But the tree was growing from 8 feet below the fence so if it hadnt been for the tree the car would have continued to roll over the "cliff"!!!!

As I was talking to the maintence employees about how we were going to get it out...a wardie came out of a door a ways up from us and yelled over "Who parked their bloody car there?!"

 

 

 Due to the amount of rain that we had, I did have to have the car towed out because the wheels were just spinning in the wet grass. Luckily, I work with some pretty amazing people and one special woman had her son and one of his friends who worked for a towing company come and get it out for free or as they called it a "Sweetheart Deal"

 

As with every bad experience, there are always things that could be worse and I am thankful that no one was hurt and that no one elses car was involved. The day actually shaped up to be not so bad afterall... I took the car to the shop to get another estimate so they would have all the parts when we bring it in on the 18th and after the estimate was complete he said that all that they needed to do with the first accident would replace all that was damaged with this one as well. Luckily, the first accident was NOT my fault and will be covered by the other person...Hows that for being LUCKY! :)

 

Now off to our Sydney Trip tomorrow! Thank goodness... after today I am definitely ready for a vacation!! :)