Failure and Strength To Rise Up

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:26)

Talent

Maddi Jane is 12! Isn't she amazing?

"Headaches and microbiology are synonymous"

I was trying to fill out my micro study guide for our quiz Friday but my head is hurting too much to focus. Each Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, at about 3:30 in the afternoon, I get a headache. I believe it's the result of my micro lab. Which I love... but looking in microscopes is not good for my eyes and therefore I get headaches. Yuck. Usually my headaches go away in a couple of hours, but today it didn't and I just took ibuprofen to help reduce the pounding. Headaches are awful things. I've been working on my DOTW, which is streptococcal pharyngitis, rheumatic fever, acute glomerulonephritus, and diphtheria. The first three are all related, which makes my life a lot easier. :-) I would tell you about them, but I'm sure that would bore you.

In my character of nursing class they have been pushing the thought of Critical Thinking into our heads. Do you know how hard it is to think critically? Oh boy. It's overwhelmingly scary. It just takes time and lots of practice, which is something I'm not very good at. I like to see results quickly and acurately. But I have learned that to get acurate results, you have to use the "elements of critical thinking". I never knew there was so much out there on this subject. Of course I knew how important it was for nurses to be on their toes and assess the patient, but never like this. Wow... But you know what? I'm so thankful our professors do this because it will make us great nurses. The process to get there is just a little difficult. :-)

This Friday I'm meeting with my adivisor to talk about time management and how to handle life along with nursing school. Let me just say that becoming a nurse would be a thousand times easier if I didn't have life. But then, what would be the point? Exactly. My life will slowly evolve into nursing as long as I pursue that as my career. I've struggling with time management for some reason and I'm hoping my advisor, Dr. Williams, will be able to help me come up with some ideas on how to handle it better. I just really want a social life and I realize that I will never be able to take an evening off in the middle of the week and be able to hang out with friends, but sometimes I just really want too. Fighting that urge is hard. Usually I make up for it by inviting my nursing buddies over to study with me so we can at least hang out with each other. It's hard. And I don't want to complain, but I find myself doing so more often than not. What I've noticed myself doing is trying to multitask everything and I end up being scatter brained and don't do the best I can. Which bugs me to high heaven! It should NOT be that way. If I want to be a successful nurse, I need to try to my hardest to do the best I can in the time allotted to me. This is something I want to talk with my advisor about as well. Nurses have so much to learn in 4 years. Those 4 years go by so quickly and it is so easy to cram things in for a test and the second you write the answer down, it's gone. I don't want to be like that. I want to be a good nurse.

Pray for me friends. I'm struggling right now. I love you.

Mighty Is The Power of The Crown-Chris Tomlin

I'm listening to that song right now. I love it.

It has been an exhausting week. So much to do and so little time to do it all in. God has been faithful and good through it all. Even though it feels like I've had to do a bazillion things, I have had moments to sit and reflect on God and what He has done in my life this week.

I have a friend who's little boy died of brain cancer last year. I was talking with her the other night about it and just by hearing her words about her little boys journey, I could tell how much his story glorified God. I truly believe he is up in heaven, maybe hanging out with my sister. :-) It's a happy thought.
It's been a rough day. In my first class, human development, we talked about development (haha, obviously) and how important it is to do certain things when raising a child. My attention to my teacher quickly faded as I thought of Gary and raising him with my sisters. We did everything wrong. Yet Gary is an amazing little boy. He's healthy and smart and sweet. It really is a miracle that we didn't stunt his growth in some way or another. :-)
But I kept wondering what he would be like if Amy had been given the opportunity to raise him herself. I try not to look back on those things because I know that this is God's plan and he has been more glorified through this plan than he would of the other, but I can't help wondering what it would be like if Amy were still her.

Anyway, my friend. She would play this song for her little boy every night before he went to bed. He was 8 years old when he went to heaven.



My friend told me that her little boy loved this song.

God is good to us.

Justine, I have to tell you a story. :-)

I have friend who is struggling in life right now. I asked my friend to go to a bible study/worship service with me this week. I was hoping that it would influence my friend in some way or another. I think it did, but as the evening was ending, we happened upon a person that my friend is struggling with. Part of me wanted to ask God, "Why tonight God? I thought you were working in this situation?". And now I realize that He was. My friend and I parted, silently and awkwardly. The rest of the evening I fel this huge burden upon my heart to witness to this person, yet I had absolutely no idea how. But as I thought more on it, I remembered a post you put up Justine, about Psalm 139. So, I sent those verses to my friend, hoping that maybe, just maybe, God would speak through them and put Light in my friend's heart. I anxiously waited a day and a half for a reply. This morning it came and I saw a glimmer of God.

Pray for my friend. I'm not naming names out of respect, but please just remember "Christi's friend" in prayer.
Also, pray for my friend that lost her little boy. She is healing and God is working in her life.
And pray for my family, as tomorrow is September 10th. and the day we lost Amy.

Life As We Know It

Wow, it's been a while since I've written. Sorry guys. School and work have been keeping me busy. Even this weekend I've spent most of my free time at work, or doing things for work. Yesterday we had CPR/AED/First-aid training at the hospital so I spent most of my day in a cold room trying not to fall asleep. Actually I was very thankful to become certified in those areas because I feel much more competent at my job. I was always scared someone would come running in asking for help for someone who needed CPR and I wouldn't know what to do. Now I do! So, yah! :-) It's a good feeling to know that I can save someones life if needed.
Today I work at the clinic 8am-4pm. Thankfully I am able to do homework on the job. Right now I'm trying to import CD's onto my i-tunes account. But since i-tunes is blocked on campus, I have to manually name each and every song. One of my biggest pet peeves is having "unknown" songs in my itunes. I spent hours one day fixing this and I swore to never do it again. :-) It's almost worth driving to McDonalds to use their wifi, but I'm not quite that desperate.
Aaron Shust is playing now. I like his music.
Oh! The other day, Thursday evening actually, Shane and Shane came to our campus. Do you know who they are? Because I didn't know who they were until I saw them. :-) But anyway, they came for a convo and it was awesome. They have amazing voices. If you don't know who they are, you should definitely youtube them. They're great.
Last night I went running with my friend, Melissa. She works at the clinic with me and is a nursing student. Sadly, she's in the class below mine so we don't get to take a lot of classes together. But each semester we try to take at least 1 class together because it makes the class a lot more fun. This semester we're taking Human Development and let me just say that I'm so thankful Melissa is in it with me because the teacher is not the best. Anyway, we went running last night and ended up walking most of it. We get talking on the most random topics and before we know it we've walked 3 miles and haven't run a single lap. But it's so cool because Melissa is a Christian and she has dealt with a lot of the same things as I have in my life. She is a HUGE blessing to me. She said last night that she knew the moment that she met me that we were going to be really good friends. Melissa is married and has a little girl, Macy. She has the funniest stories ever. :-) hehe.
I want you all to know that I'm thankful for each of you. I'm sorry that I get really busy during the semster and I don't have as much time to email you, or write you letters, or call you even. I really want to spend time talking with each of so please let me know if you feel like I've been ignoring you. I love you and think you're all great. :-)

Now, Microbiology is calling my name. :-( Write me friends! I love to hear from you!

Psalm 62

1 "My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. 2 He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.3 How long will you assault a man? Would all of you throw him down-- this leaning wall, this tottering fence? 4 They fully intend to topple him from his lofty place; they take delight in lies. With their mouths they bless, but in their hearts they curse. "Selah" 5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. 6 He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. 7 My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.8 Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. "Selah" 9 Lowborn men are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie; if weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath. 10 Do not trust in extortion or take pride in stolen goods; though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them.11 One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong,12 and that you, O Lord, are loving. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done."