Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

Next week are finals...at the beginning of the year i was dreading it; i thought they would be hard because everything in college is evidently supposed to be hard. I have three finals...all are open book! I know, easy. I was relieved but thought that for a couple I would have to study since it would cover all the material from the semester. My politics review was interesting. My professor gave us all the questions that would be on the exam; they were fill in the blank. After he gave us all the questions, he gave us the words that go in the blank! So basically he read all the questions from the test with the answers; when it comes to exam day, all i have to do is copy and paste...WAHOO!

THe Envelope System

I am taking a finance class once a week to get a glimpse at...everything! Somethings make sense, others I have no clue what we're talking about. This week we were encouraged to use cash instead of plastic. They encouraged us to use an envelope system. What you do is divide your paycheck into categories that you need: savings and tithing are a "must envelope". Other than those two you can split it up however you like (gas, food, personal, etc). After you spend a certain amount, you write where you spent it and your new balance on the envelope. Once the money is gone from the envelope, there is no more spending in that area until the next paycheck. I think I can do it...we'll see how it goes! :)

My Jesus

I keep hearing this song, so that means one thing...im supposed to share it with you :) If you are really interested, you can listen to it at lyricsmania.com. Its called My Jesus and written by Todd Agnew...enjoy!

Which Jesus do you follow,Which Jesus do you serve
If Ephesians says to imitate Christ,Why do you look so much like the world
Cause My Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and liars,
He loved the poor and accosted the arrogant
So which one do you want to be
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
or do we pray to blessed with with the wealth of this land
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness
Or do we ache for another taste of this world of shifting sands
My Jesus bled and died for my sins
He spent His time with thieves and sluts and liars,
He loved the poor and accosted the rich,
So which one do you want to be
Who is this that You follow,
This picture of the American dream,
If Jesus was here would you walk right by on the other side,
Or fall down and worship at His holy feet
holy
Pretty blue eyes and curly brown hair and a clear complexion,
Is how you see Him as He dies for Your sins,
But the Word says He was battered and scarred
Or did you miss that part,
Sometimes I doubt we'd recognize Him
My Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and the least of these,
He loved the poor and accosted the comfortable,
So which one do you want to be,
Cause
My Jesus would never be accepted in my church
The blood and dirt on His feet might stain the carpet,
But He reaches for the hurting and despises the proud
And,
I think He'd prefer Beale St. to the stained glass crowd
And I know that He can hear me if I cry out loud
I want to be like my Jesus
I want to be like my Jesus
I want to be like my Jesus
I want to be like my Jesus
Not a posterchild for American prosperity, but like my Jesus
You see I'm tired of living for success and popularity
I want to be like my Jesus but I'm not sure what that means to be likeYou Jesus
Cause You said to live like You, love like You but then You died for me
Can I be like You Jesus?
I wanna be like you Jesus
I wanna be Like my Jesus

cool huh? :)

Without God

Every one of us wouldnt say that we've never had one of those crazy hectic weeks (especially coming to the end of the semester!) When we are crazy busy, we sometimes forget what is most important; our relationship with God. We just look at our week as Sunday through Saturday with no time for relaxation. Our goal is to keep our head above water and if we dont mess anything up, we have succeeded. Well, when keep God out of our lives, our week should look a little something like: Sinday, Mournday, Tearsday, Wasteday, Thirstday, Fightday, and Shatterday. Think about it...ITS SO TRUE!
Sometimes we go through the motions, are calloused towards our sinning habits and may even not realize that we have put God to shame. Therefore, we go on without asking him or others we have hurt for forgiveness.
When things go wrong, we always ask why. We seldom come across the thought that maybe our trials are a result of our sin and God may try to be getting our attention back where it should be.
We waste so many hours in our lives doing nothing worth while. Just think of all the time you spend on the computer, texting, watching tv, etc. Then think about how much time you spend with the one who created you.
When we go without God for a period of time, if we are truly striving to become more like His Son, we have that thirst for Him. The feeling of regret that we've been gone for so long, and the yearning to hear from Him.
Sometimes we are so bitter and selfish that instead of doing what God has willed for our lives, we turn the other way. We think that our way is better because we know what's best for us. HA! We all know that NEVER works out in the end.
After pushing against God for a period, our lives eventually shatter. We cant take it anymore, life is too hard on our own, we throw in our white flag and give up.
Thankfully God is always there waiting us to come back to Him. He compassionately welcomes us back because He knows what is best and knows that we cannot do anything without Him.

Its the Little Things in Life...

This week an ear infection decided to pay me a visit unfortunately. As a result, i have not been able to lay down flat for the past three days...meaning that i have slept on the couch those three nights. I can honestly say I MISS MY BED! I miss the spacious mattress, I miss that once you turn off the lights they actually stay off, and i miss my beauty sleep not being interupted by kitchen lights or the ice machine, or clanging of spoons against cereal bowls. Whenever i have gone to bed at night, i dont necessarily think about how nice it is to have a dark and quiet room and that i get to sleep uninterupted. Thats all :)

A Health Proposition

So my mom has done a lot of researching lately on seizure/migraine triggers and many things have come to the surface. In short, my diet will soon change here in a couple of days :) A lot of the migraines that I have are caused by what I put into my body; we have found through research that MSG is a big trigger. She was given a website to read and I just read it. Before I looked at it, she told me there were some food items on the website that contained MSG, and if I wanted to be as healthy as I could possibly be, it would be in my best interest for me not to eat those items. Well let me tell you, that was one long list! However, migraines are NO fun, and I can definitely sacrifice some food for comfort....I think.
Hence the list of MSG-infected food:
Hamburger Helper Microwave Singles® (targeted towards children)
Doritos®
Campbell's® soups - all of them
Pringles® (the flavored varieties)
Progresso® Soups - all of them
Lipton® Noodles and Sauce
Lipton® Instant soup mix
Unilever or Knorr® products - often used in homemade Veggie dips.
Kraft® products nearly all contain some
Gravy Master®
Cup-a-soup® or Cup-o-Noodles®
Planters® salted nuts - most of them
sausages
processed cheese spread
supermarket poultry or turkeys that are injected or "self-basting"
restaurant gravy from food service cans
flavored ramen noodles
instant soup mixes
flavored potato chips
restaurant soups made from food service soup base
gelatin hydrolyzed plant protein (found in canned tuna and even hot dogs)
yeast extract
soy sauce
Splenda
Worcestershire sauce
dry milk and whey powder
King Arthur, Heckers, and Gold Medal flour
body builder drink powders containing protein
Parmesan cheese - naturally high in free glutamate
mushrooms - naturally high in free glutamate
Medications in gelcaps - contain free glutamic acid in the gelatin
So.....some will be hard to not eat, but after reading the website, most of these items I wouldnt even classify as "real foods" after reading all of their ingredients.
For all of you out there who are "healthaholics" here are just some easy tips for eating out that will lead to A LOT healthier lifestyle:
AVOID all CHICKEN items
AVOID all SAUSAGE items
AVOID all PARMESAN products
AVOID all Ranch dressings - stick to oil and vinegar Italian
AVOID Croutons
AVOID KFC altogether
AVOID Dipping Sauces
AVOID Gravy
AVOID TOMATO AND MUSHROOM soup
AVOID McDonald’s fries
Ugh, hopefully I can remember what I can and cant eat :) More importantly, hopefully it will help me stay healthy and prevent my migraines.
Also, another plug in that the grass fam is now doing...my mom has found that if you store leftovers in glass containers rather than tupperware and plastic, it is healthier. Studies have shown that microwaving food in plastic containers may cause breast cancer. Even though glassware is much harder to store in the fridge, it is WELL worth it!
Well thanks to all of you who read my health rant, and feel free to ask how well Im doing at eating what im supposed to and staying disciplined in this area :)

A Day in the Life of

At work this week I have been taking care of a VERY LARGE patient......700 lbs to be exact. No I am not exaggerating; I looked at the kilograms, converted it, asked a nurse if it was right, and was confirmed. Yeah, interesting to say the least. In the hospital it is a rule that you should turn each patient every two hours. It usually only takes one or two people, but this time it took ten of us using every single muscle we had. We had to order a special bed and gown for her also. Everything you would do with a normal patient, the difficulty level was magnified like 700 times! It was sooo hard to really do anything which is frustrating at times, but oh well. Two days later, her bed deflated and we had to order a new bed. We could not get her from point A to point B so I was told to call the fire dept. so those hefty guys could come move her, and it took seven of them. We took a dietary survey of what she eats; JUST FOR LUNCH she eats 10 double cheeseburgers from McD's! Well, she'll be in the ICU for a while which is sad, but everyday i learn something very intriguing. Just another day in the life...

Little Ones

As some of you know, Ive worked in the NICU as part of my job. I LOVE IT! I was with all the healthy babies so it was not stressful at all. It is very quiet, compared to the ICU. For 2 hours I sat in a rocking chair and fed one little boy his bottle and just held him as he slept. It was actually relaxing, which is rare on the job of course. But more than that, it's very rewarding. They cant do anything themselves so they are fully reliant on you; it makes you feel needed and important. Holding a 7 lb bundle in my arms is soooo fun. They are so precious!

What Are You Thinking?

Most of our unhappiness in life is due to the fact that we are listening to ourselves instead of talking to ourselves. Just think of a scenario....the minute your alarm clock goes off you're thinking, make it stop! and hit the snooze. Then you remember what day it is and all you have to do and think you're better off in bed. But you throw your feet over the side of the bed anyways. As you sit there, you think of what all went wrong yesterday. As you shuffle to the cold bathroom floor, you begin to question the conversations you had yesterday and whether everyone was still happy with you or not. As your standing in the shower thinking of everything that lies ahead of you, you tell yourself that you need to pray. The only problem is, there's no time to pray! Does God feel kinda distant?
To prevent this, we need to speak positively to ourselves. Constantly praying thanks to God and asking Him for guidance. Be others focused instead of self-centered. Have a joyful heart!

A Day in the Life of

This week Ive felt like a mad woman running here, there, and everywhere doing well....you know the things that we do. :) Every night when I fall into my bed, I cant even think! I guess thats how its supposed to be right. I worked a TREMENDOUS amount this week but tis a good thing :) However, especially at the hospital, when ive been there a while and i have 3 drs orders, call lights going off, phone ringing, pharmacy tube dinging, vital phone buzzing, and nurses wanting my help "just for a minute"........ALL AT THE SAME TIME i feel like screaming :) I have never screamed out loud thank goodness, but sometimes under my breath i let out a quiet squeal just to keep me sane. I have truly found out that i have to pray for patience EVERY SINGLE DAY. God probably laughs at me when all those electronics are going off and im about to lose it, but i know its just to help me grow. Today was no different.......
I worked both at ChickfilA and the hospital....a total of 10 hours. At ChickfilA i worked drive thru so it wasnt really that bad. You do have those few costumers who kinda throw you off your tracks a bit. For example, we have this deal that last month for two days we handed out blue receipts and then this month you can redeem the receipt for the same dollar amount of food. Well this lady in drive through ordered $37 worth of food; that's a big ticket for drivethru. She pulls up to the window and said that she had a receipt, but she was looking for it in her purse. I assumed, like any other person, that she understood our deal. Instead she pulls out a Wal-Mart receipt. Wal-Mart?! I told her that it was in fact a Wal-Mart receipt. She obviously had no problem with it. She said, "I know I bought those items on the same monday as the deal last month if you look at the date." Trying hard not to laugh, I explained to her what it really meant, but she wasnt quite happy with me. Oh well, she made me smile :)
Then off to the hospital. I was actually looking forward to it because saturdays are usually pretty slow; not today! We got a new patient right when I got there which is always hard and confusing to jump right into; and he was a handful which was not helpful. We didnt have a secretary, so I had to be a tech and sec, which i dont know really how you're supposed to do that but i somehow managed it...barely :) Call lights NEVER went off. Then when I got to sit down to work on the new patient chart, one patient screamed. I went into her room and her jello spilled ALL OVER her and her bed; her red jello. Never mind that i just gave her a bath, never mind that i just changed her bedding, never mind i just put a new gown on her; everything was splattered red and sticky. She felt bad but still. After cleaning up the jello, back to the dr order which was now four drs orders. About ten minutes before I was getting ready to leave I sat down to eat my pretzels being so thankful that my shift was almost up. Then we got a trauma; a motorcycle wreck. Yeah, it was a mess, so I stayed an extra hour. All I can say is I felt really bad for the nurses that had to be there for 12 hours today :)
Although the hospital is not always fun, it certainly does have it's perks. The other day I went to Home Hospital for two hours and held and fed a baby. It was relaxing and so much fun. There were so many cute babies in that nursery! Its a great feeling to be there and just baby them and give them 100% attention. You never know what their childhood will be like. So even though my job may be stressful at times, I definitely love it!

Open Your Eyes

So God gave us our eyes for a purpose....obviously. But we mostly use our eyes for the wrong reasons. In summary, God gave us our eyes to look out instead of in. What do I mean? Well, most of the time we concentrate too much on ourselves instead of looking out for others' interests and needs. This statement does not mean to ignore yourself, because we constantly have to be examining our hearts. It does mean that most of us dont take enough time out of day to serve others. OPEN YOUR EYES! :)

A Precious Gift Taken for Granted

Every Morning you are given 24 golden hours. They are the only things that I can think of in this world that you get free of charge. Even if you had all the money in the world you couldn't buy an extra hour. What will you do with this priceless treasure? Remember, you must use it, as it is given only once. Once wasted, you cannot get it back. What will you do with the time that is left? :)

My 360

So i told you all i would keep you posted on my future decisions and college plans. i have decided to drop the athletic training major and not pursue lee university. Why? Well, there are lots of reasons :) I have wanted to be an athletic trainer for a long time, but for the past 6 months several things have pointed out the fact that maybe athletic training isnt for me. While this was happening, my stubbornness came out and i told myself that no matter what i was going to fulfill my goal as trainer. Sadly, the thing that was motivating me the most was proving something to myself. No one in my family has gone into the medical except for my uncle and aunt on my dad's side, so i was determined to be different. I finally came to grips with reality and considered any other options the world may have to offer. I still enjoy sports and the training aspect of it, so I didnt want to give that up totally. Also, this fall I coached the JV volleyball girls at Faith and really enjoyed it. I have decided to major in phys ed and take some coaching classes on the side. To my surprise, phys ed has a lot of the same classes that athletic training had listed in its courses, so Im really excited. Since my major is more common now, there are many more Christian colleges out there for me to choose from; I am hoping to transfer next year to Bethel up near South Bend. Im very excited about my new plans for life, so we'll see how things go from here :)

Reincarnation

So today I was in my beloved philosophy class......oh dear; that's all i have to say. We discussed this week about the soul and body and how the brain and mind are two different things and so on. All I have to say is my professor has a pretty interesting philosophy up his sleeve. Today he presented an argument that just appalled me; I was stunned that someone who was so smart would actually believe something so crazy.
This is his argument of soul and body union: Your soul exists before you were born, so you can have thoughts before you were born because the soul and mind are the same thing. When you are born, the body and soul crashes together and become one. If the body remembers something from the soul's "past life" then the soul and body did not crash hard enough. When you remember things throughout life, it is a result of doing things consistently in the souls "past life". When the body dies, the soul separates and keeps living, waiting to inhabit another body.
WEIRD! When he was done, all I could do to keep from laughing was to smile. He sensed that I was not satisfied with his view and asked what I thought of it. HA! If he only knew :) Of course I thought it was absolutely bogus, and stated my point....
You cannot have thoughts before you were born, you cant even remember things from when you were two. So the whole body soul crashing thing; yeah, that's a little strange. We remember things because we are taught things and our brain and muscles store it. Our souls do have an after life, but it does not involve inhabiting another being; it involves existing in either heaven or hell. I proposed my view, and he did not agree with all of it. I did not expect him to accept all of it, but he did say that some of it may be proven to be somewhat correct at some point in time. Just another day in the life :)

What Shall I Do Then?

Last night in my devotions, the author that I was reading posed a very interesting question. Whenever a person reads through the crucifixion and resurrection story of Christ it gets more familiar every time you read it and sometimes you tend to skim. But last night a part of the passage stuck out to me differently than it ever has before (with the author's help :) ) In Matthew 27:22, Pilate asks, "What shall I do then with Jesus who is called Christ?" In context he is talking to the angry mob obviously, but we must ask ourselves this question everyday in everything we do. Will we serve Him or ourselves? Will we put Him on the shelf or make Him #1 in our lives?

Pulling a 360?

So for the past two years I have been pretty sure where I want to go off to college and what I want to major in. Over the last two weeks, God has been putting little things in my life that have been showing me that maybe my plans may not be for me. I know I want to go to a Christian college,but my major that I have had prior is very rare among Christian schools. I wanted to go into athletic training, but there are only three colleges total (secular and private) in indiana that have that major. I wouldnt mind leaving indiana, but im not so keen on moving across the country either. Today I am going to school to take an aptitude test; it supposedly analyzes you and suggests some other majors that maybe one had never thought about before that they would be interested and good at. We'll see how it goes, and I'll keep you all posted; please pray that I will keep an open mind to all possibilities!

First Aid 101

So....something really funny happened at school today and it just made me laugh. I was leaving and heading for the parking lot and saw a group of guys playing football over in the grass. Well, one guy threw the ball and one was running in the direction straight for a light pole. He was looking back at the ball to catch it, so I knew he was going to run into it. Sure enough...he did. Except what I didn't think he would do, he did. Right before he ran into it full force, he looked straight ahead which meant he pretty much did a face plant into the pole. He immediately started bleeding and I had some tissues so I felt I should help. I went over and he had a big gash in his forehead and his nose was bleeding nonstop. The other guys went inside and got the security guard. He was a little out of it obviously and they were getting ready to take him to the hospital once they got the gash to stop bleeding; the security guard said he probably broke his nose. I did feel bad for him, but the look of the scene and his responsiveness was hilarious....oh it just made my day :)

A Parking Ticket?!

So today started out good. It was friday for me in a sense that I am done with school for the week. My classes went by fast, I don't have that much homework over the weekend, and I received news that I do not have philosophy class on tuesday, and it was a beautiful day to eat lunch outside. Pretty good, huh. Yeah.....I assumed a good day too soon. As I was putting my stuff in my car, I noticed a white paper tucked in my windshield. I stopped abruptly and grabbed it to see what it had to say. A parking ticket....it said it I was in a prohibited spot. Well, I parked in front of the library like I do every day. In fact, I have parked in the same spot since the first day of school. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to park in the library parking lot at the beginning of the year so I simply asked and they said it was definitely ok. So the there was no purpose to thisparking violation right? I took it to the security desk and asked for a reason behind the ticket. The policeman said that there had been too many students parking in the library parking lot and that they made a new rule that no students were allowed to park in that parking lot for more than 5 hours. I asked him how I was supposed to know about the new rule and he stated that they sent out an email to all the students stating so. Guess what, I never received an email. I think the policeman could tell I was a little flustered/frustrated and he explained to me that the first time you receive a parking violation, it's just a warning so that relieved all my worries. He knew I parked there every day so as I was leaving he offered my same previous parking spot daily for five bucks. To be polite, I just laughed and said no thanks. Did he really think that was a deal? :)

Experiencing Grace or Earning it?

Last night as I was reading The Cross Centered Life, Mahaney said something that really struck me as interesting. He said, "What God had intended to be a means of experiencing grace, we have changed into a means of earning grace." A lot of the times we struggle with "so many things to do and so little time to do it" and we just want a time to chill out....well, we can just chill out and receive God's grace; we don't have to do anything to try and earn it. God loved us so much to just give it to us over and over again. We try daily to measure up to a perfect standard when we cant....we're humans! God had intended us to glorify Him throughout our life and enjoy it. So, just chill out and experience His grace :)

CS Lewis

So over the summer I have really gotten hooked on books by CS Lewis. No, most of the time they are not easy to understand, but it is a great feeling of accomplishment when you finally figure out what he's trying to say. At first I needed many friends' guidance and advice as I read to explain it to me because I just didn't understand. Now, I am becoming more familiar with the way he writes and I love it! I have read Screwtape Letters, Problem of Pain, and am currently reading Mere Christianity. My favorite was Screwtape Letters, but I think Mere Christianity will top it :) Last night one of the quotes stuck with me throughout my reading so I decided I would share it. Lewis said, "The almost impossible thing is to hand over your whole self-all your wishes and precautions-to Christ...until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self." That is so true. We as human beings, or atleast myself, always want to be in control of our lives so it is very hard for us to hand our lives completely over to God. But when we bite the bullet and turn our lives into God's hands, thats when we really start to live. Cool, huh? :) Well, maybe that will spark some of your interests out there to start reading ;)

Music to My Ears

Since I have graduated, I do not play my saxophone any more....sad I know :) Therefore, my saxophone sat all summer untouched in my closet. A started practicing hers a little before school started and DD started playing his trombone when school started. DD loves instruments....making up songs, changing keys and rhythm, and so on. Also, his only volume is loud :) But that is to be expected since he is a boy. Anyway, he seemed very intrigued by the saxophone Allison was playing; asking how it worked, how to put it together, and so on. Since mine was not being played, A and I gave it to him to play with thinking he wouldn't know much about it, get bored and only play with it for a couple of days. We were wrong. He plays with it almost every day! The funny thing is, he doesn't know any of the fingerings for any notes so he just blows.....like a brass player :) The other day it was being abnormally squeaky and mother went in there to check on him. She found the issue......the mouthpiece was on upside down :) Oh.....gotta love him! :)

Magnetic Box

So....last week at school I did something I never thought I would do - lock my keys in my car. To be specific they were in my trunk. How they got in there I don't know. You see, I use my trunk as kinda my locker since those don't exist at college and I think they dropped in there when I was grabbing all my philosophy books for class. So....before class I was talking to a classmate and suddenly realized I didn't have my keys and flipped out. My eyes got really big and I told him I'd be right back and started running down the hallway. Of course, with my luck, it was raining outside. I guess he noticed I was trying not to panic so he tried to help me. I called my mother and she ran to the wickerts to get a spare key. My classmate, I guess, tried to help. He asked where my magnetic box was on my car that held the spare key. I was so excited! I already have a spare key? Sweet! I told him I didn't know but to look for it. He got on the wet ground and looked under my car for it until finally he told me he didn't see one anywhere. He asked where Ihad bought the box and how long ago I had purchased it. I was so confused, so I asked "You have to buy the box?" He replied, "Of course, you just dont get a care with an extra spare key attached to the bottom of it!" "Oh, I guess that does make sense. I don't know much about cars." He just laughed and walked away. Silly me, I was just so confused, I did think it was kinda weird to already have a spare key, especially in a little magnetic box under my car; oh well. Mother did finally bring me the real spare key about a half hour later, but it only opened my drivers seat door, not the trunk. Of course, I did not know where the "pop the trunk" button was in my car so I had to go home and read the manual to get to the rest of my books and my purse and my lunch in my trunk.....oh I hope that never happens again.

Will you live it or leave it?

I have been challenged lately with the question of "What will you do with the time God has given you?" Time is such a precious gift that I take for granted too often. With this previous questions come all sorts of other questions. "Do you live with no regrets?" "Do you love what you do and the people you encounter?" "Do you let the past stay in the past?" "Do you take your hurt to God instead of trying to figure it out on your own time?" "Do we give our time first to Jesus and then to our other priorities?" Then, finally, "Are you ready to go home, or do you want to stay and live your life on earth?" Will God say, "Well done,"? Just something to think about :)