I am sitting in Cory's lab while he blows stuff up and burns and nuc's things. As much as he tries to explain it to me, I still don't get it ;) So I am waiting for him to finish his research for today so I can go shopping! I decided I would use the time to blog, post pics and then work on Christmas cards. So, lets post some pics, shall we?
Last weekend, Cory took me hunting in Quitique. It was going to be my first attempt to go deer hunting...ever. We got to Quitique Friday night where Cory and his dad gave me a crash course on how to shoot a rifle. I didn't get a chance to practice. So they showed me in a magazine where to line the cross hairs and then quizzed me on a whole bunch of pics of deer. Saturday morning, 630 am, we head out to the fields to find the mule-y deer are already out and about! They hadn't been coming out til about 7. So we go head out to the field and wait for the sunrise. When I took my first shot, I pulled the trigger to quickly and must have jerked the gun enough to make the bullet go high or low. I have decided that muleys are stupid because instead of running like any white tailed deer in thier right mind would do, this muley looked around and said "what the heck was that!?" He then proceeded over a hill where I couldnt see him in the scope anymore. He was only a spike so I am sorta thankful I missed. ;) The second one came, he was a spike and a fork. This time, on my second time ever shooting a rifle, (the first being moments before!), I got my first deer :) It was sad but exciting at the same time. =) Cory got a 5 point also this weekend. We are going back tomarrow to process both the deer ourselves so that will be an experience. Here are the pics to go with my first deer hunting experience. About halfway through there is a picture with a caption that says "enter at your own risk" because there are some pics of us skinning and quartering it. So if you dont want to see that, I am warning you not to go past that. ;) Like I said, Enter at Your Own Risk!
Deer Hunting 2008
For Thanksgiving, my parents came to town! YAY!!!!!!!!! It was so much fun =). It was great to have Thanksgiving at my house and it was our very first time to cook Thanksgiving dinner. Cory was in charge of the ham and the turkey. Mom and I did sides. Dad poured the wine ;) Thanks dad! Here are some pics of us prepping with our Christmas decor followed by the actual pics of the visits. I will take pics of all the decor and post those later. So here ya go!
Thanksgiving 2008 Part 1
Thanksgiving 2008 Part 2
We also trooped while my parents were here! We rang the Salvation Army bells at Walmart and made $301.54 in three hours. It was a blast!! Here are some pics !
Salvation Army Bell Troop 2008
I hope everyone's Christmas shopping is going smoothly. I'm anxiously awaiting Cory to finish so I can go shop. I did bring my Christmas cards so I may get to work on this now...take care everyone!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
In brokenness comes beauty...
OH MY GOODNESS!!! WE SURVIVED! WE ARE DONE!!!
Yesterday marked the end of them semester for both of us. WHOOO! Sorry I have not blogged in the past month, but it has been quite hectic here. And I have forgotten what it feels like to not do homework...awwwww...feels great ;) So let me feel you in!
My past 4 weeks are what college kids like to call "heck week." (I will use nice words! lol) I have been on the go nonstop for the past few weeks with papers, exams, homeworks...more papers...The week before Thanksgiving, I wrote 4 papers! PHEW! One of them was a 14 page literature review for my research class about hospice nurse burnout titled: Palliative Care Burnout: A Literature Review on Risk Factors and Coping Strategies. I am actually quite proud of that one! And it is something I hope I can change or impact in the future because palliative care is my passion. And after writing this paper, I found it is just as important to care for the caregivers. OH I LOVE NURSING! I also wrote a 9 page evidence based practice paper for my OB/pedi class titled Evidence Based Practice: Grief Reactions of Women Experiencing an Elective Abortion. I chose this topic because although I do not believe in abortion, I most likely will take care of a patient that has had one and one thing about nursing, is that we are to remain unbiased in our care for our patients, regardless of our beliefs vs. theirs. We cannot let that step in our way of quality care so I thought it would be an interesting topic to cover.
So, last week I had a clinical exam on Tuesday and an ERI (national online exam) on Wednesday. And what a week that turned out to be. On Monday, my friend Hilary and I went out to lunch and then to the library to study. The instructors didnt give us any pointers or hints so we had no idea what to study for this exam. A clinical exam consist of 5 case studies. Basically, you are given a scenario and then you may have 10-15 questions off that one scenario. One question may be short and simple, another question may require two pages of handwritten material. Its basically a "show what you know" type exam. The slot to take this exam was FOUR hours. Hilary and I were pretty much feeling ill, "how can we write FOUR hours of material?" On top of that, we didn't know what topics to study. In the past semesters, they told us the topics. Our friend Christina joined us and we decided that dehydration and respiratory problems were the most frequently seen issues on the pedi floor so we studied that for about 3 hours! I told Hilary if these are the topics for pedi that I would build a church or an alter! Time goes fast when you study. That night I got home and I was so broken. I was so tired, worn out, exhausted and feeling really low. I was pretty much ready to give up nursing school because nursing school really sucks the life out of you. I do not have any idea how people can go to med school. So I was feeling extremely broken on Monday. While studying Monday with Hilary, there was alot of prayer between the two of us and we went to the Word often during our studying. I think that was God nudging me, but I failed to notice and became very broken.
On the way to my exam, I was listening to a new MercyMe cd that I have been listening to over and over again. But God said "HELLO!" with this song. I listened to it then God said "uh rewind that and listen to that song again, You need to hear that. Listen to the words." So I rewind it and listen to it and whoa...
It's been one of those days where everything just feels so far away
Hope don't be a stranger, won't you help me make it through the day?
Then a voice comes,calling out to me, you are never alone cuz I am with you
And I will always be, I will hold you, cuz you belong to me, You are never alone
Cuz I will be with you, for all eternity
Someone tell me how I stumble into doubting all the time.
Some days I am all together and other days I stand here asking why...
WOW! That was definatly me on Monday and Tuesday before the exam. So I went in, took the exam and afterwards, I built an alter ;) The pedi topics were dehydration and respiratory! YAY! And the OB topics went wonderful also. I came out of that exam, 4 hours later, (yes I wrote the whole four hours!), feeling great. I felt like I actually did really well. On the way home, I was rejoicing that it went so well. Then the Lord said..."um excuse me, got another song for you to listen to..." This song came on and blew me away. I tried to find an official MercyMe video of it, but no can do so here is a version of the song being signed to. Here is the song and the words...The last line hit me hard.
Undone
No apologies, for who I'm meant to be. The only thing that matters is I am free.
When I am overwhelmed, holding pieces of my heart.
WHen I feel my world start to fall apart...
To the cross I run, holding high my chains undone, Now I am finally free,
Free to be what I've become...Undone.
Even in defeat, the face of tragedy, still you have to say that I found victory.
In brokeness comes beautfy, divine fragility.
Reminding me of nailed scarred hands, reaching out to me...to the cross I run...
WOW!!! Even in this video, I was so the guy in the middle. I was so broken on Monday. And the Lord said "HELLO TRUST ME!!! Cast your anxieties on me!" That last line hit me hard "In brokness comes beauty, divine fragility." - I learned to trust in the Lord through my brokenness. "Reminding me of nail scarred hands, reaching out to me"- God is always pursuing us. ALWAYS. I should be running to the Cross in all that I do and all that I am.
*****************************************************
SO! On Wednesday, I had to take the ERI. The ERI is a national exam that has random questions on it, some of which we may not have even covered over the semester. It is one of the hardest exams I have ever taken. We have to take one each semester and they are usually about 15% of our grade. EVERY semester I have gotten 1 point away from the national average, which is really pretty discouraging. Wednesday mornin before the exam, I decided to go to the Word and read Psalm 42 and 43 about Hope, because I decided I needed to find hope in the Lord. It was wierd. There was like a calming effect on me before the exam. When I got to school to take the exam, Kathy (my ob instructor) informed me that I recieved a 99% on my paper about grief reactions to abortion, so that was super encouraging! I then proceeded to the exam. I cast my anxieties on the Lord and took the exam. What happen next was REALLY wierd. It was like a conversation with God. We took the exam together. This may sound crazy, but it was pretty cool. I do not know how to explain it. It was just like we conversed over the questions and I felt pretty confident with each answer. Strange, considering the ERI usually FREAKS me out and always discourages me. So at the end of the 2 hour exam, before I submitted, I prayed to God and said, "I am trusting you. Whatever score I get, I am ok with it because I know you are here." Screen pops up...SIX FREAKIN POINTS ABOVE the national average! HOLY COWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!1 WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and the Lord said "see, you trust in me, I take care of you." WHOW!!!!!!!!!!!! I was blown away and pretty freaking excited. That brought my grade up to an 82% in the class! WOW! I went home with such a greatful heart!!!
So this Monday, I had my final. I told the Lord I am trusting in Him and again, my anxieties were all cast on him. Phew, what a relief. I spent all day Sunday studying and felt pretty good, even though I was nervous, for the final. When I got to the final, I looked at question 1 and said "uh Lord, you there? Remember, I already confressed i cant do this alone" He said "Im here" but it wasnt the whole conversation again, it was just like Him reminding me He was there...it was so strange. Got my results last night and I made an 82% on the final. YAY!!! The Lord taught me an important life lesson in these past two weeks and I wanted to share with you all. Here is one more video/song by MercyMe that sums up what I am feeling right now. I do feel God had a plan for Cory and I to attend that MercyMe concert last month, He knew those cd's were going to come in handy. I love how the Lord works!!
Yesterday marked the end of them semester for both of us. WHOOO! Sorry I have not blogged in the past month, but it has been quite hectic here. And I have forgotten what it feels like to not do homework...awwwww...feels great ;) So let me feel you in!
My past 4 weeks are what college kids like to call "heck week." (I will use nice words! lol) I have been on the go nonstop for the past few weeks with papers, exams, homeworks...more papers...The week before Thanksgiving, I wrote 4 papers! PHEW! One of them was a 14 page literature review for my research class about hospice nurse burnout titled: Palliative Care Burnout: A Literature Review on Risk Factors and Coping Strategies. I am actually quite proud of that one! And it is something I hope I can change or impact in the future because palliative care is my passion. And after writing this paper, I found it is just as important to care for the caregivers. OH I LOVE NURSING! I also wrote a 9 page evidence based practice paper for my OB/pedi class titled Evidence Based Practice: Grief Reactions of Women Experiencing an Elective Abortion. I chose this topic because although I do not believe in abortion, I most likely will take care of a patient that has had one and one thing about nursing, is that we are to remain unbiased in our care for our patients, regardless of our beliefs vs. theirs. We cannot let that step in our way of quality care so I thought it would be an interesting topic to cover.
So, last week I had a clinical exam on Tuesday and an ERI (national online exam) on Wednesday. And what a week that turned out to be. On Monday, my friend Hilary and I went out to lunch and then to the library to study. The instructors didnt give us any pointers or hints so we had no idea what to study for this exam. A clinical exam consist of 5 case studies. Basically, you are given a scenario and then you may have 10-15 questions off that one scenario. One question may be short and simple, another question may require two pages of handwritten material. Its basically a "show what you know" type exam. The slot to take this exam was FOUR hours. Hilary and I were pretty much feeling ill, "how can we write FOUR hours of material?" On top of that, we didn't know what topics to study. In the past semesters, they told us the topics. Our friend Christina joined us and we decided that dehydration and respiratory problems were the most frequently seen issues on the pedi floor so we studied that for about 3 hours! I told Hilary if these are the topics for pedi that I would build a church or an alter! Time goes fast when you study. That night I got home and I was so broken. I was so tired, worn out, exhausted and feeling really low. I was pretty much ready to give up nursing school because nursing school really sucks the life out of you. I do not have any idea how people can go to med school. So I was feeling extremely broken on Monday. While studying Monday with Hilary, there was alot of prayer between the two of us and we went to the Word often during our studying. I think that was God nudging me, but I failed to notice and became very broken.
On the way to my exam, I was listening to a new MercyMe cd that I have been listening to over and over again. But God said "HELLO!" with this song. I listened to it then God said "uh rewind that and listen to that song again, You need to hear that. Listen to the words." So I rewind it and listen to it and whoa...
It's been one of those days where everything just feels so far away
Hope don't be a stranger, won't you help me make it through the day?
Then a voice comes,calling out to me, you are never alone cuz I am with you
And I will always be, I will hold you, cuz you belong to me, You are never alone
Cuz I will be with you, for all eternity
Someone tell me how I stumble into doubting all the time.
Some days I am all together and other days I stand here asking why...
WOW! That was definatly me on Monday and Tuesday before the exam. So I went in, took the exam and afterwards, I built an alter ;) The pedi topics were dehydration and respiratory! YAY! And the OB topics went wonderful also. I came out of that exam, 4 hours later, (yes I wrote the whole four hours!), feeling great. I felt like I actually did really well. On the way home, I was rejoicing that it went so well. Then the Lord said..."um excuse me, got another song for you to listen to..." This song came on and blew me away. I tried to find an official MercyMe video of it, but no can do so here is a version of the song being signed to. Here is the song and the words...The last line hit me hard.
Undone
No apologies, for who I'm meant to be. The only thing that matters is I am free.
When I am overwhelmed, holding pieces of my heart.
WHen I feel my world start to fall apart...
To the cross I run, holding high my chains undone, Now I am finally free,
Free to be what I've become...Undone.
Even in defeat, the face of tragedy, still you have to say that I found victory.
In brokeness comes beautfy, divine fragility.
Reminding me of nailed scarred hands, reaching out to me...to the cross I run...
WOW!!! Even in this video, I was so the guy in the middle. I was so broken on Monday. And the Lord said "HELLO TRUST ME!!! Cast your anxieties on me!" That last line hit me hard "In brokness comes beauty, divine fragility." - I learned to trust in the Lord through my brokenness. "Reminding me of nail scarred hands, reaching out to me"- God is always pursuing us. ALWAYS. I should be running to the Cross in all that I do and all that I am.
*****************************************************
SO! On Wednesday, I had to take the ERI. The ERI is a national exam that has random questions on it, some of which we may not have even covered over the semester. It is one of the hardest exams I have ever taken. We have to take one each semester and they are usually about 15% of our grade. EVERY semester I have gotten 1 point away from the national average, which is really pretty discouraging. Wednesday mornin before the exam, I decided to go to the Word and read Psalm 42 and 43 about Hope, because I decided I needed to find hope in the Lord. It was wierd. There was like a calming effect on me before the exam. When I got to school to take the exam, Kathy (my ob instructor) informed me that I recieved a 99% on my paper about grief reactions to abortion, so that was super encouraging! I then proceeded to the exam. I cast my anxieties on the Lord and took the exam. What happen next was REALLY wierd. It was like a conversation with God. We took the exam together. This may sound crazy, but it was pretty cool. I do not know how to explain it. It was just like we conversed over the questions and I felt pretty confident with each answer. Strange, considering the ERI usually FREAKS me out and always discourages me. So at the end of the 2 hour exam, before I submitted, I prayed to God and said, "I am trusting you. Whatever score I get, I am ok with it because I know you are here." Screen pops up...SIX FREAKIN POINTS ABOVE the national average! HOLY COWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!1 WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and the Lord said "see, you trust in me, I take care of you." WHOW!!!!!!!!!!!! I was blown away and pretty freaking excited. That brought my grade up to an 82% in the class! WOW! I went home with such a greatful heart!!!
So this Monday, I had my final. I told the Lord I am trusting in Him and again, my anxieties were all cast on him. Phew, what a relief. I spent all day Sunday studying and felt pretty good, even though I was nervous, for the final. When I got to the final, I looked at question 1 and said "uh Lord, you there? Remember, I already confressed i cant do this alone" He said "Im here" but it wasnt the whole conversation again, it was just like Him reminding me He was there...it was so strange. Got my results last night and I made an 82% on the final. YAY!!! The Lord taught me an important life lesson in these past two weeks and I wanted to share with you all. Here is one more video/song by MercyMe that sums up what I am feeling right now. I do feel God had a plan for Cory and I to attend that MercyMe concert last month, He knew those cd's were going to come in handy. I love how the Lord works!!
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