Fishin' and Grillin'

Last night my family got together for a cook out. Unfortunately, it wasn't just to have fun...we needed to say goodbye to my cousin, Cody. He left this morning for the rest of his Marine training and eventually Iraq. It was definitely a bittersweet time of fellowship...many moments of fun and laughter, but always tinted with the knowledge that it was the last time Cody would be with us for a while. For me, one of the sweetest but painful moments was watching him teach his 3 year old daughter how to reel in a big fish.

I pray that God will use this time of separation and danger to draw Cody ever closer to Himself. I pray that Cody will have an intense awareness of God's presence, comfort, strength, and protection wherever he goes. I pray for his daughter, Presley, and wife, Lindsey, that they will learn to rely fully on God to strenthen and comfort them. I pray for my aunt and uncle that they, too, will be fully aware of the strenth and comfort only God can give in times like these.

Final final

It's that time of the year again. Uggh! Good news, though...these may be the very last finals I ever take!! :-) Bad news, though...my final on Thursday covers EVERYTHING I've studied for the past 2 years. Here's a look at the load I've been carrying around and cramming into my brain for the past two years, not counting all the other science classes I had to take at the same time. And they think I'm supposed to know everything in that stack of books! Yikes!

DISCLAIMER

The wine bottle and gun in the picture below were merely decorations in our Turkish Bed & Breakfast. There's nothing odd about that, right?

To Elizabeth:

Liz, your comment inspired me a bit to look for more pictures of my weird friends because, yes, OF COURSE, Tido should be listed in that category, as well as, you and many others! :-) Thanks for reminding and inspiring me.

Just couldn't resist...

Weirdos

I just found these pictures hiding on my computer in a long lost file. Fun memories! I really don't know how I've collected such strange friends. I'm amazingly normal but these cooky people just keep tracking me down.

Spring 'O Weddings

In the past month or so, I've been a part of 3 weddings. 2 friends and 1 cousin. Each wedding has been very unique with at least one very exciting moment. I've already blogged about the first wedding...the one where the groom passed out...several times. Then there was Heather's wedding. And, I guess nothing really out of the ordinary surprised us during the ceremony, but it was memorable with Heather wearing St.Paddy's green socks with her wedding dress, and us bridesmaids wearing shamrock tatoos on our shoulders.

By the way, HUGE thanks to Heather's hair dresser, cause wasn't my hair GORGEOUS!! Not prettier than Heather's, though, of course! :-)

Then there was my cousin's wedding this weekend. She decided to brave the weather possibilites and have an outdoor wedding at the lake. Thankfully, the weather was PERFECT. And everything was BEAUTIFUL! But, we didn't get by without some very exciting moments. The most blogworthy happened just before the ceremony, thank goodness. As the wedding party was finishing up their pictures, I happened to look at the aisle that we had created, and noticed a VERY long BLACK SNAKE checkin' things out. I calmly alerted everyone that a snake had just joined us. Amazingly only one bridesmaid ran shrieking away. One of the guys there encouraged the snake to leave and actually picked up the snake when it didn't cooperate. Unfortunately I didn't get the snake on my digital camera. All you animal acitivists out there will be relieved to know that no snake was harmed during the removal procedure. And, the bride only hyperventalated a little. :-) One other extremely happy bit of news about this wedding...my cousin had actually planned for this wedding to be in September, but her brother is a marine and was recently called up for duty. So, she moved the wedding up to April hoping that he could be there. He had to leave for training 2 weeks ago, though, and didn't think he would be allowed to come. After MANY prayers, he found out the morning of the wedding that he could have leave, and arrived literally minutes before the ceremony began. It was such a sweet moment!! Once again, the bride hyperventalated, only a little. :-) Many congrats to Kristin and Eric!!

Overwhelming change

I just finished my last class in Pediatric Medicine. Now I have 3 weeks to study for the final. Do they think it will be that hard? Hope not! I still have my major nursing class, MedSurg, for the rest of the semester, but finishing a class today makes it very real that graduation is so near. And with graduation comes MAJOR LIFE CHANGE. I love change. Most would look at my life over the past 10 years and say that change doesn't phase me too much. But, the next 8 months have even me getting a little nervous.

Next month I graduate. 2 days after graduation my parents and I are flying to my favorite city, Istanbul, for a few weeks. I come home from that and 2 days later leave for a week of specialized training in Dallas. About 5 days after that I pack up my clothes and move to Little Rock. The next day I fly to Kansas for a fun wedding and friends. The very next Monday I start my first job as a real nurse. Work a couple months, move back home, and move to another area of the country for some more specialized training for 2 months. Come home for Christmas, and pack up my life to move back overseas for "good". Hmm, am I ready??? Let's pray so.

Never before am I more aware of how thankful I am that God never changes. In the midst of my crazy life, He is constant. When I'm in a whirlwind of planning and moving, He remains ever present and calm. When I'm exhausted in every way, He gives me strength and rest. When I'm afraid of the unknown, He makes Himself known to me in a fresh way. He is my constant foothold when I'm placing my feet all over the world. Praise the Lord!

Marathon weekend

Ok, this is one of those posts I wanted to write a couple of weeks ago, but was just too busy to get around to it. I also had hoped to post pictures of this weekend, but my camera is in the shop. boo.

I can honestly say I've never really celebrated St. Patty's day with this much "hoorah" before this year. The weekend began with a 4 hour drive to my wonderful friend, Heather's house in Oklahoma. This 4 hour drive came after a week of 2, 10 page papers, a 15 minute presentation, and 2 tests. That's nursing code for "no sleep in 4 days". But, I loaded up on caffeine and headed out. One tiny antecdote from the trip...

Stopped at McDonald's on the turnpike b/c I couldn't keep my eyes open. Decided to go in b/c I needed to wake up. Thought, hmm, fries and a dt. coke sure would be good. Discover an entire college basketball team has taken over the restaurant. Wait in line for 20 minutes surrounded by 7 foot guys. Get my food to go. Eat one fry. Walk out the door to my car. Drop the bag with the fries. Spill every single french fry while the bus of basketball players watch. Sigh in disbelief. Get in car. Drive away.

Thankfully the weekend got better after that.

So, I got to spend HOURS alone with Heather before she got married. Had a GREAT time. Wedding was too fun. All the bridesmaides put shamrock tattoos on our shoulders to accent our beautiful black dresses. Heather sported bright green knee highs under her dress. Fun! Continued to get no sleep.

Got up Sunday morning at 5 am to drive 7 hours to Memphis, TN for an interview. Thankfully the company I was interviewing with put me up in the Hilton. Woohoo! Hooray for lush Hilton beds. Got LOTS OF SLEEP. Interviewed. It went great!! Will share more on that much later.

Drove from Memphis the following day to interview with St. Vincent Hospital in Little Rock, AR. Got the job!!! Start in June. Scary!!! So excited to live in an actual city again, though. Petrified, though, that in less than 3 months I will be the REAL NURSE. Yikes!!

Finally drove back home Monday night. Whew! Makes me tired just writing about it. So, that was my marathon weekend that would have been way more interesting with pictures. Oh well.

Creation

So sometimes I really enjoy living in a rural community. Yesterday, my sweet little puppy dog, Max, and I were walking our daily route. The university here in town is primarily an agricultural school and most of the campus is a giant farm. So, they have a path that circles most of the farm, about 2 miles. It really is one of the prettiest places in the town. While we were walking I noticed a cow off by herself a little ways acting kind of odd. So, Max and I stopped to see what was going on, only to discover she was in labor. Cool! Within about 15 minutes she had birthed the calf, cleaned it up, and the baby was walking. Amazing! Sure, this kind of thing happens all the time because God's creation is incredible. And I've even seen it happen before. But, something about just walking up on it, out in the pasture, with no idea it was about to happen, just made it sweeter.

Not so funniest video

Two weeks ago I had the priviledge of singing in a friend's bilingual wedding. No, I didn't sing bilingually. :-) It was really interesting to hear so many of the traditional wedding sayings and scripture in Spanish. One part of the wedding needed no translation, however. Panic pretty much translates in any language.

So, you know how we've all seen a million clips of people fainting at their wedding on America's funniest videos. I always laugh. In general I laugh at moments that really may not be that appropriate to laugh at. Hmm, that could pose a problem as a nurse. Anyway, I discovered that watching someone, live, at their own wedding pass out and bust their chin open, is really not that funny. Oh, don't get me wrong it was funny like 5 minutes after it happened, but at the time, not so funny.

This is how it went down. Dad and bride walk down the aisle. Dad stands between bride and groom. Preacher goes into long speech about marriage. Groom tumbles like a California Redwood. Groom's chin smacks on the step. Groom's brothers, aka, groomsmen, go into panic Espanol. Groom gets drug to the first pew. Preacher makes light, "Rachel, Javier has already fallen for you." Crowd laughs nervously. Rindy sings song as distraction. Groom gets up and faints again. Bride stands awkwardly. Groom gets up, nope, down again. Still standing awkwardly. Groom gets up. Preacher quickly marries bride and groom. Reception. Bride and Groom go to doctor's office for 3 stitches to chin. Honeymoon.

All on video.

Blogworthy

As most "bloggers" would say, I live life now thinking how daily happenings would make great posts. Over the past couple of weeks, I've had almost daily moments of, "wow, that would be a great blog!" But, life has been so blogworthy lately, I haven't even had time to actually blog about it. I find that to be a good problem. :-) So, now that I have finally made it to my spring break, I hope to post some of the highlights of the last few weeks. And, I just wanted to direct everyone to my countdown...less than 2 months till graduation!!!!!

Good to be in the South!

Mmmm! Crawfish!! So disgusting to eat, but so yummy. My lips are still burnin'! :-)

Don't be late

I saw a report on the news last night that the government of Peru was calling for the whole country to be more time conscious. They installed new bells and ceremoniously rang them to signal the country's new focus on time. The government officials explained that the whole country was costing productivity by not watching the clock closely enough. I had to laugh when I heard this. Having lived in a culture that is also not very time conscious and knowing that much of the world operates this way, I had to wonder if this approach would really work. And, then that made me think why were some cultures like America and Germany so time centered, and others just weren't, like Peru apparantely. It'll be interesting to see if the entire culture of Peru will be changed with a more focused approach to being on time. By the way, they rang the bells to synchronize watches, 20 seconds late.

Battle

A battle is raging in my church. It's a fight that's been going on as long as I can remember. The body of believers I'm a part of now is the body I spent the first 18 years of life growing up in. The fight quietens at times and roars at other times. Right now, it's roaring. It breaks my heart. It's always broken my heart.

What is it that professing believers in Christ can rant and rave over, turn beet red about, fire staff over, and finally run away to a different church??? Music. Too fast, too slow, too repetitive, too old, too young, too different, too loud, too boring, in the hymn book, not in the hymn book...all reasons to divide a church, right???!

So far the solution proposed is to try and satisfy everyone. Usually that works to satisfy no one, right?

As I was praying about this crisis Monday night with a group of ladies I sing with and minister with, I threw out the proposal to just throw the music out for a while and pray through scripture. Seems like that's been done before, hmm. "I'm coming back to the heart of Worship". Gasps and silence was the response I received.

To the silence, I shared my heart. It's not the music that's the problem. It's the hearts of the people. Why throw out the music and focus on prayer and scripture? Because worship is a priveledge. A priveledge none of us deserve, but one God freely gave us when He gave us His son for our salvation. Music is the part that feels good, to me anyway. Many times I've been full of selfish sin, but if the music was just how I liked it, I could feel like I was worshipping. I think that's the problem at my church. Lots of hearts are full of sin. And when the music style isn't exactly what they have an emotional attachment to, they don't feel like they are worshipping...because they aren't. So we blame the music director, or the band leader, or the singer, or the sound guy...everyone but ourselves.

To the proposed solution of satisfying everyone...I say that's letting us all off too easy. No one wants to cause further turmoil by doing something drastic. Wow. Drastic is where we are, people. We've been spoon feeding for too long. It's time to take away the crutches, in this case music, and bring people to God's word through prayer.

The ladies were definitely shocked, but as they considered it, they timidly thought it might be the answer. I don't know if totally throwing music out for a time is the answer for our group of believers. We might not be mature enough for that. I don't know. What I do know is that there is never a reason not to seek out a solution through prayer and the Word.

I want to stand up before the congregation Sunday and scream at them. Don't you know that there are millions around the world who can't sing music of any style in a beautiful building like this because they could be killed for it!! Don't you know that there are millions dying around the world who have never worshipped with any style of music because they've never heard the truth of the gift God offers to save their souls!!

I'm a bit passionate about this. :-) But seriously, my soul is aching, literally about to burst, with wanting to draw my beloved brothers and sisters back to the heart of worship. When I think of talking with some of the advocates of the music fight, I get so emotional I end up blubbering more than talking. Maybe by airing out my frustrations and passions to my faithful blogger friends it can be kind of a catharsis that will help me with my grief for my dying church and enable me to rationally reach out to the members.

Please pray for my church and its leaders. And, I know that our little church isn't the only one experiencing this in America. Pray for the western church.

Signal Lost

Yesterday I went to a live, satellite simulcast of a Beth Moore and Travis Cottrell worship/Bible study event. The actual event was taking place in Tyler, Texas. Over 100,000 women around North America also took part. It was incredible worship through song, prayer, fellowship, and teaching. One of the most significant moments for me, though, was totally unplanned.

We were having terrible weather, here in Magnolia. Tornadoes and thunderstorms were racing through the southern part of our state. Not really conducive for satellite tv. After lunch, as the storms grew, we were just getting into another session of praise and worship with Travis Cottrell. He and his band were just getting into the meat of a great song when our signal was lost. The screen went black, and all the women went silent. Several seconds later the signal came back, and we could see on the screen that the women in Tyler, all 4000 of them, were on their feet, hands in the air, praising God with all their might. I looked around as our group all just stood there watching from the sidelines a great blessing being rained down on the group who had not lost their signal. I thought, wow, what a great lesson.

So many times we believers will be right on the brink of mind blowing worship, but we get distracted. Interference. Sometimes it's distractions we make for ourselves. Other times it's something that isn't exactly in our control. But we miss out. We miss incredible blessing. More importantly, God doesn't get the honor He deserves. We stand on the sidelines and watch as others pour their lives out as an offering to the King and in return, they, not those on the sidelines, are filled with His magnificent glory. Signal Lost could be written on our foreheads.

I pray we stop letting the storms in our lives interfere with intimate worship of our Lord. I pray I stop losing the signal.

My Peeps

Such a strange candy! I don't even really like the taste of them, but I continue to make myself sick eating them. It's always so interesting to me to watch the change of seasons on the Wal-Mart candy aisle. And I often wonder why some holidays get all the candy love and others are totally bypassed. Thanksgiving definitely gets the shaft. Halloween candy appears around August, and midnight, November 1st, Christmas candy magically appears. What happened to Thanksgiving??? Why are there no turkey peeps? And what about President's day last week. Faces of Mt. Rushmore could totally become fantastic Peep material. Anyone got more holiday peep ideas? Let's change the world!

Sacrifice

The things I'll do for a friend...

So I've got this friend, Heather, who many of you know and love, and she's getting married March 17th. Our friendship is really peculiar. The only time we've ever lived in the same city was one summer way back in 1999 in Colorado and another summer in Turkey. But, I truly consider her one of my very best friends. In fact, she's probably a key factor in me becoming a nurse.

Anyway...I'm a bridesmaid in her wedding. So, because of our dear friendship, I'm making a huge sacrifice---my skin! Yesterday I bought 15 tanning visits. Had my first session yesterday...hurting a bit today. Pasty white skin and super bright, ultraviolet bulbs don't always make a good match.

When I was in high school I didn't think anything of destroying my skin in the tanning bed every winter. But, after a few health classes in college, I deemed them evil, never to shine on my precious skin again. After a northern move and then a very eastern move, the culture I was surrounded with didn't seem to care as much about bronze skin. So, the temptation to tan never really came up. Then, I moved back to the good, ole South. Last winter as I sat in my college classes, I was shocked to see girl after girl coming in 1) wearing not nearly enough clothing for the season and 2) sporting severely dark skin. At first I was appalled. Then, as the temps warmed up, and I had to bust out the tanks and capris, I found myself drawn to the tanning bed once again. But, my principles held firm, and I self-righteously resisted.

Now, my second winter in the South, and Heather's wedding looming nearer...principles are thrown out. I discovered I could get the spray on tan at my salon, but that seems like a lot of bother. So, I'll go the skin-cancer route, because it's much simpler. :-)

I love you, Heather!

I'll post a pic of my beautifully, diseased, tanned skin in a month. :-)

Southern Specialties

A friend of mine who has only recently moved to the South posted this recently, and I have to admit it is pretty accurate and hilarious!

Things I've learned living in the South

1. Possums and armadillos sleep in the middle of the road with their feet in the air.

2. There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 live in the South

3. There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 live in the South plus a couple no one's seen before.

4. If it grows, it sticks; if it crawls, it bites.

5. Onced and twiced are words.

6. It is not a shopping cart; it is a buggy.

7. Fire ants consider your flesh as a picnic.

8. People actually grow and eat okra.

9. Fixinto is one word.

10. There is no such thing as "lunch". There is only dinner and then there is supper.

11. Ice tea is appropriate for all meals, and you start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar!

12. Backards and forwards means "I know everything about you."

13. Jeet? is actually a phrase meaning "Did you eat?"

14. You don't have to wear a watch because it doesn't matter what time it is. You work until you' re done or it's too dark to see.

15. You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH them.


YOU KNOW YOU'RE FROM the South IF:

1. You measure distance in minutes.

2. You've ever had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.

3. You use "fix" as a verb. Example: "I'm fixing to go to the store "

4. All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect, or animal.

5. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

6. You know what a "DAWG" is.

7. You carry jumper cables in your car... for your OWN car.

8. You only own four spices: salt, pepper, Tabasco and ketchup.

9. The local papers cover national and international news on one page but require 6 pages for local gossip and sports.

10. You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday.

11. You find 100 degrees Fahrenheit "a little warm".

12. You know all four seasons: Almost Summer, Summer, still Summer and Christmas.

13. You know whether someone is from north or south as soon as they open their mouth.

14. Going to Wal-mart is a favorite pasttime known as goin' Wal-martin or off to Wally World.

15. You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as good pinto-bean weather.

16. A carbonated soft drink isn't a soda, cola or pop... it's a Coke, regardless of brand or flavor. Example: "What kinda coke you want?"

17. Fried catfish is the other white meat.

18. We don't need no stinking driver's ed....if our mama says we can drive, we can drive.

19. You understand these jokes and forward them to your Southern friends (and those who just wish they were). Not EVERYONE can be Southern; it's an art form and a gift from God!

Obedience

Last night I got to speak to a precious group of ladies in Smackover, Arkansas. *waiting for the laughing to end* :-) Regardless of the funny name, these women were such a joy to spend the evening with. I'm always amazed when someone says they want to hear "my story" of how God has worked in my life over the years. And I'm even more amazed when I watch God use my story to touch the lives of others.

Whenever I give a "talk" like this one, it usually is made up mostly of stories about how when I was obedient to what God was telling me to do, this is how He used it to glorify Himself, and in turn blessed me. This always brings me back to what I learned studying Gen. 12. God tells Abraham he's going to bless him so that he can be a blessing to others. Through all this blessing going around, God is greatly glorified and nations come to know Him as the one, true God. The kicker is always obedience--no one can really be blessed if we aren't obedient.

Disgruntled customer

Ok, so I had an interesting encounter in Wal-Mart today. Here's how it played out:

I was pushing my cart into the pet aisle, when I met another customer coming up the other side of the lane. Both of us had to maneuver a bit to get by, so I smiled, said excuse me and just threw out a comment about the aisle being small. You know, just normal small talk at the local Wal-Mart. Apparently this was an invitation to the gentleman that I wanted to spend the next 10 minutes complaining about the hundreds of faults of Wal-Mart. He proceeded to rant, with profanity, about how he was instrumental in getting the last Wal-Mart manager fired because of her incompetancy but the new one was even worse. He explained, "is it too much to ask that people getting paid even meager wages show a little respect and work hard?" Until this point I had been only listening and smiling awkwardly as I desparately searched for an escape route. But, now he wanted me to agree with him. What to do??? My reply was, yes, it would certainly be helpful if we were all more considerate to each other. With that I smiled, pushed my cart to the dog food brand that I needed, and hoped to make a clean, friendly getaway. Unfortunately I made the mistake of saying I hoped he found what he needed as I walked away. This got him started again, only now he was yelling all the way down the aisle to me. *laugh* Thankfully I was finally able to turn the corner and run.

Ok, so during this entire odd conversation, I kept wondering if this was someone I was supposed to really share some love and truth with. You know, when it was my turn to talk, should I have told him that being nice to the Wal-Mart workers might actually cause them to respect him more? Or was this someone that just wanted someone to listen to him and nod and smile? Hopefully he just needed a listening ear and didn't put me on his "bad" list next to the current Wal-Mart manager.

Life as a SENIOR nursing student

You may have noticed that my last post was January 16. That was my last day of freedom...the day before my LAST, first day of school. (For now anyway...this being my third degree I've accepted the fact that I truly may be a professional student.) So, since I've been a bit busy since then, I'll try to catch you up.

My brother, sis-n-law, and I got to take a fantastic roadtrip to Dallas one weekend for a Mavs game. Got there early and got Marc Cubin's autograph...who cares about the players, he's the one with the "real" job. :-) Game was great, even if the air was a bit thin where our seats were. Seriously, we were so high that I had to keep my coat and gloves on because it was freezing! Thank goodness for giant video screens. The Mavs beat the Kings 106-104. Go Mavs! Paid $14 for a pretzel, chili-cheese fries and a coke. Mmm, an expensive heart attack wrapped in paper napkins. The trek back to our cheap parking spot pretty much worked off all those empty calories, though...so life is good.

Ok, moving on...I realized a couple of sad facts this week: 1) I'm old and 2) I'm a nurse nerd. This realization hit when I had to have my blood pressure checked for a job application. My b/p was excellent--104/62. The fact that this excited me proved both points. I'm old and I'm a nurse nerd. Because who else really cares if they have a good b/p...

Let's see, other thoughts...

I went to a women's ministry planning meeting this week. I presented the ladies prayer tea with the hopes of doing one or two more of them for 10-20 women at separate times. But by the end of the discussion, a giant tea was being planned for possibly 50 women or more. I'm excited and a bit overwhelmed! Will definitely write more as the details work out...lots of prayer will be needed.

Ok, I've got more than 200 pages that need to be read and understood of a pediatrics book. Better get busy...

A tea party

My mom and I recently hosted some ladies for a night of Islamic culture. Our goal for the evening was to help the ladies learn about and identify with Muslim women around the world. We hope that by identifying at least in a small way with women from a very different religion and background, fears will be replaced with prayers. We served foods that are common in many Muslim countries, such as almonds, pistachios, dates and dried apricots, feta cheese, humus, baklava, and even lavash. Oh, and of course we served chai. As the ladies arrived we greeted them with a kiss, handed out scarves, and took our shoes off. For most of us it was the first time we had ever spent an entire evening with our head covered. It proved to be quite warm and cumbersome. It was a great cultural experience and one I hope we get to share with many more ladies.

Mom making the baklava. Mmm, it was so good!



I couldn't believe it when I found "lavash" at Wal-Mart!

iMax

Ok, so here's another pic of me drinking coffee in the great recliner in the office. But, it was such a classic moment with my computer and dog, Max, both in my lap. :-) Haha, Max is chasing the cursor as I write this post. *laugh* Lapdogs and laptops may not be the best mix.

Hirsiz var!

Ok, a burglerer I am not. And I have the bruises and ripped jeans to prove it.

Yesterday I had a guy come to clean the carpet in my apartment. He was an hour late, so I left instructions and had to leave. One very important instruction I neglected to give was to leave the door unclocked when he left. Poor guy. He didn't know there was no key to unlock the door, and being the helpful guy that he is, he locked up before leaving. Hmm, what to do.

The large picture window on the side was locked, and the regular sized window on the front was locked, but the tiny little bathroom window was not locked! Ok, grab a ladder. Take the screen off. Ponder how in the world I'm going to squeeze through the tiny window, and then how will I reach the floor on the other side??

First try....go in head first. Get more than half my body through and freak out because I can't reach the floor yet with my hands and what if I bust my head open when I fall. Ok, back up, back up. This proved much harder to do than going in. This is also apparently when I severely bruised my legs and ripped my jeans. Gravity doesn't work too well backwards. But, oh, I'm sure it would have made for a great laugh and photo op on the outside. Ok, whew, made it back on the ladder.

Second try...feet first. Hmm, only one leg can get through at a time because I'm just not as limber as I once was. And, dang, that window pane HURTS! Try again.

Third try...ok, be brave, head first again. This time I decide ahead of time that there's no backing out, it hurts too bad. So, diving in I reach the floor doing a hand stand until I can pull my feet down. Whew!! That was a workout!

I truly do wish I had pictures to share. I was laughing so hard I nearly fell just imagining what I looked like. Oh, and the really great ending to the story. 5 minutes after I heroically opened the front door from the inside, my dad showed up saying he had found the key.

Rainy day

Oh how I love semester break. It's a cold, rainy day and I have NOTHING that I have to do. I'm still in my pj's, sitting in my favorite recliner, watching the rain, good music is playing, and I've got a yummy cup of coffee. What a perfect day.

Old friends

One of my favorite things about Christmas is getting to catch up with old friends. This is Angela. We met in junior high thanks to espanol class and even roomed together in a tiny cell all 4 years of college. We knew our friendship was tight when we made it out of UCA still loving each other!!

Christmas Scenes

This is my strawberry tree. Even used mint grown in my own gardern. Watch out Martha!
The Crump family eating. This was the first year to have Christmas at our house. It was fun decorating everything!


My little cousin, Presley. Isn't she sweet! Just wait till she squeels, though. Ouch!

My sister-n-law, Liz and I--the 2 queens of the house!

A wild game of Nertz to end the Christmas festivities.

Singing Love

As many, many people know, I really miss living in Turkey!! Just about every day I think of someone or something that I miss. BUT, I LOVE being in America for Christmas. This week I participated in one of the most meaningful things I've ever done at Christmas, and I never could have done it in Turkey (which is also why we need to BE in Turkey). My mom and I and 3 other of my favorite women from church, went Christmas caroling with chimes. The music was really beautiful. But, the most beautiful part was the encouragement and love felt by those we visited. We made a point to carol several of our older church members who are either ill or recently lost a loved one. Every single one of the sweet people we sang to actually said they really needed someone that very night that we came by. It really put the holiday in perspective. In a nation where materialism overwhelms everything else, it was an incredible reminder that love is still the most important gift of all.

Calling all single women...ok, there's only 1

Have you ever experienced the feeling of being the ONLY young single in a church of about 1000 people?? For the past year and a half I had suspicions that I was the only single girl under 30 in my entire church, but you know, it didn't really come up a lot. So, whatever. This past Sunday, though, those suspicions were absolutely confirmed. It was focus on Lottie Sunday, so our pastor brought in an ex-Jguy, under 30, single, to share his story and promote the work. I was super excited that we were actually having a Lottie focus and the Jguy's message was right on! Beyond that, I hadn't thought much about it, until I tried to leave peacefully to grab some lunch. Before I could get out of the sanctuary, a well-intentioned choir lady grabbed my arm and said I HAD to meet this guy who was "PERFECT" for me. So we go trudging, arm in arm, up to the front where others were gathered to speak to the Jguy. Then, as I tried to play it off as cooly as possible, the choir lady thrust me forward and announced that, "Thiiis is Rindy. She was a Jgirl and loves the people you spoke about!" Oh my word!! All I could do was laugh, as did the very gracious Jguy. He then replied, "Oh, I've already heard allll about you." The horrorrr!! :-) Apparently my pastor had shared his thoughts on me with the Jguy the night before. Anyway, he was very nice, we knew lots of the same people, and then we went our separate ways. The story continued at church that night. At LEAST 10 other women approached me and informed me that I should follow him to South Asia b/c he was definitely the ONE for me. As my dear friend Teri would exclaim, "HOLY BUCKETS!" *laugh* I guess I should be flattered that the men and women of my church recognize that only a man with God's heart for the world will be the ONE for me. But, yikes, it was a bit overwhelming for practically the WHOLE :-) church to throw me at a single guest speaker. If anyone else has ever experienced something quite like this, care to share how you handled the situation with grace and dignity???

Relief

Wow! I'm finished!!! I celebrated the end of finals with a bag of popcorn, a Diet cherry vanilla Dr.Pepper and the finale of Amazing Race that I had recorded 3 days ago while being disciplined to study!!!! Hard for even me to believe! Hooray for freedom. I think I'll take a nap now.

1 more final!!!

So I'm definitely in the "doing anything to keep from studying, but really need to be studying" phase of finals. I just took my 6th test of 7 and have exactly 19 hours left to study before the last, most important final. I hate that my hardest test is the last one. Of course, I should have been studying for it along the way, but I find it impossible to study for one subject when I have 6 tests before it to take. Anladin mi??? :-) It's moments like these that I REALLY wish I lived in a more civilized part of the world where i could find a Starbucks, or something equivalent, to study in. But, I'm stuck in one of the tiny cells they call study rooms at the school library. I need MOTIVATION!! Comprehensive...the most feared word in college. It makes absolute sense to give a comprehensive final at the end of the semester, especially for a degree that requires standardized board exams at the end, but WOW, oh how i hate comprehensive exams!!! I am forever "winging it" on comprehensive exams, and so far it hasn't proven fatal, but it really causes more stress than is necessary. The way I see it, I've already studied all the material once, right? So it should be in my brain somewhere, right? Like I said, I need MOTIVATION! Ok, here I go...studying...

tired of being a college student!

Ok, so my "new leaf" of frequent blogging hasn't worked out so well. Sorry. Excuses: school, and school, and boring life other than school... But, I have been reading lots of blogs lately, and I'm going to take a cue from others and just tell the mundane events of today.

So, I'm in two weeks of finals. I had a test yesterday and 2 today. There's another one on Friday, and then one on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I am officially sick of being in school!! The super exciting news, though, is that I have only one more set of finals after these!! GRADUATION is in sight. Of course, who's to say that after I work a few months I won't decide to continue my nursing education, but for now I am ready to simply be an employee of some fine hospital!

So, I guess I'll get back to the books and my next glass of a caffenated beverage. Seriously, I'm too old for this!

Autumn Praises

I wanted to share a couple of incredible praises from today.

1. Fall in Arkansas is BEAUTIFUL!! It's always been my favorite time of the year. And after living in a couple different areas of the world where this season was basically non-existant, I appreciate it even more.

2. For the past several weeks a classmate of mine has been on my heart. I've been really focusing my prayers that God would draw her to Himself, and asking that He would give me just the right words to share with her and invite her to church. I have to admit, she's so very different from me, I've really had to grow in my trust of the Lord that He can do anything He wants in her life...even use me to help her along. So, this morning before class, as she and I were chatting about school, SHE up and ASKS ME where I go to church and could she come with me sometime. I literally almost fell out of my chair!!!! Woww!!!!! Isn't God AMAZING!!! He absolutely has known all along what He was doing in her life and that she would ask to go to church with me. But, wow, wasn't I completely blessed because I had been praying for that very thing to happen?!! Actually, I wasn't creative enough to think to pray that she ask me! God is so good!!!

Happy November to everyone, and I pray God will use this praise to encourage you all.

A very unusual sight

A line at that men's toilet. Strange, eh!? Actually, me taking a picture of the men waiting to use the toilet is probably stranger. :-)

Hawg Culture

And now for a VERY Arkansas experience! Because of the "quaintness" of Arkansas, there is only one major Division I university in the state. (Although my alma mater, UCA, recently joined Div. I AA and is kicking butt!!) This enables the ENTIRE state to be Razorback fans. Thanks to a great friend, with a generous dad, I got to cheer the Hogs on in Fayetville this weekend as they played a big rival, Alabama. Going to a game in Fayetville could really be called a "cultural immersion experience". Here is the day in pictures...

Heather and I ready for the big game!

"Calling the Hogs" If you're a special friend, you've heard me do this. :-) WOO PIG SOOEY!

The villains...BAMA.

The heroes...Razorbacks.

The opponents meet.

After 2 overtimes, the Razorbacks miraculously ended up with a win!! Focus on #31 in this pic, smile, and say thank you. 3 missed field goals and a missed extra point put BAMA on the losing end. Cok sagol!

Fish Fry

This is a true family tradition. Frying up the catfish and bass is my Uncle Randy's specialty. Of course the fish are always served with fries, "slaw", hush puppies, baked beans, and sweet tea. Mmmm! Unfortunately this is the only pic I took because I was too busy eatin'!

Introducing: Magnolia

Ok, to begin my new outlook I'll start with where I live. My apartment is such a blessing in so many ways. Before it was mine, it was my grandmother's. It actually belongs to my parents, but they built it for the day when my grandmother couldn't live in Texas by herself. As you know, that day came about 2 years ago. She lived in this space the past 2 years until she moved on to her now glorious space this past April. Up until her last weeks with us, when she couldn't manage to say much else, she daily reminded us how blessed she felt to live in such a wonderful place. Not only was it great for her, but it made it possible for my mom and I to take care of her on our own for the majority of her illness. What a huge blessing that was! Now it's my blessing. It's small, but everything I need. It gives me independence while still keeping me in the "free zone" while I finish school. Thanks mom and dad! :-) There are still many reminders of my grandmother in it which I love, but I've been able to add a little of myself, too.






I can't talk about my apartment withou mentioning my 2 roommates. 2 roommates in an efficiency apartment??? Meet Funny and Sunny. No, I've never really been a cat person, especially after my time in Istanbul (cok kedi var! *for you Heather*), but these two are pretty nice. They are also an "inheritence" from my grandmother. She loved them like family, and none of us had the heart to get rid of them, so...roommates.

Confession

I’m studying Daniel right now. It’s amazing and extremely convicting of so many things…it’s kind of painful. One conviction that I’ve actually been fighting for several weeks finally smacked me in the face this weekend. I need to confess it to many of you who read this blog because I involved many of you as I continually committed this sin. Over the past year I’ve spent countless hours, days probably if we added it all up, complaining, whining, crying, sulking…about how terrible it is to live back in my hometown. I knew that this was the place God called me back to for many reasons, and although I was obedient to go where He sent me, I have certainly made it known that I didn’t like it! “Woe is me” has been my theme song for the past 13 or so months. This resentful attitude has certainly affected my relationship with God, and I’m positive it has greatly affected my witness. So, I apologize to everyone that I’ve emailed, called, or spent time with griping about this “unbearable place” God sent me.

Beyond feeling the need to confess to you all, and many others, I also feel that I need to be very proactive to fight against my desire to complain about life in small town America. One idea is to approach my town with the same eyes and ears I had in Turkey. While living there I experienced a few inconveniences and culture clashes :-), but I had resolved myself to see the city through the eyes of Jesus. So, I took pictures of everything. I marveled at the unique differences in my culture and theirs. And I prayed, prayed, prayed, everywhere I went. So why can’t I do that right here in south Arkansas?? The plan is to take pictures of my life here…my home, my church, my school, the stores, the people…I’ll probably be amazed at how interesting the town actually is! So, I hope for my handful of blog readers that you’ll enjoy learning and praying about a little town in Arkansas.

Iowan Holiday

Since I really built up my road trip to see Teri last month, I guess I should update about how it went. After a 15 hour drive, listening to "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn", Teri's basement apartment was a very welcome sight! Teri, the ever gracious hostess planned a great Iowan holiday for me. As you can see in the picture, we visited Okoboji. That's Teri and me sailing across the lake. Really...ok, so we actually spent the whole time laying out on the dock watching the sail boats, but does it count that I dreamed about sailing while I was sitting on the dock of the lake?? Actually we did watch an old guy who was really in no shape to windsurf flip his boat right in front of us. It took 2 teenage guys and the lake patrol to get him back on board.

We also spent an evening listening to a great band from Nebraska. They were so good I can't remember their name. The crowd loved them until they played the Nebraska fight song...the Iowa folk weren't too happy about that.

I discovered "broasted chicken". Can anyone tell me if there is something about it that makes it different from regular fried chicken?

Oh, a HUGE discovery made during my Iowa travels is easiest told in a joke that I actually heard quite a few times: "If a couple in northwest Iowa gets divorced are they still first cousins?" Apparently Arkansas shouldn't be the only state to get a bad rep regarding that subject!! I guess they have to keep the Dutch blood pure somehow. :-) For more info ask Teri.

It really was great to meet all of Teri's family and friends. They treated me very well and only made a few comments about my sweet Southern accent. :-)

After experiencing the cool Iowa breezes smelling of hogs and corn, I loaded up the Stang again and headed south. On my way back to Arkansas, I stopped off in the great city of Mcalyster, Oklahoma. In the 11 hours it took me to drive through Nebraska, Kansas, and most of Oklahoma the temperature increased by 50 degrees. Ouch! Welcome to the south, eh. Had a fantastic time touring Heather's brand new old house. She's quite the DIY girl. After 2 trips to the coffee house, a trip to the Hub, an hour massage, and a pedicure, and of course hours of chatting with Heather, I decided it was time to end the holiday.

Oh, and btw, for those who thought "broasted chicken" was an Iowan delicacy, Heather and I saw it advertised at a liquor store in Oklahoma. Interesan, eh??

In conclusion...can someone please explain broasted chicken. Thanks!

A barking blessing

Blessings can come in unexpected packages! This is my sweet dog, Max. He's a year old now, and I've had him since last November. I didn't know I needed him until the day I brought him home. At the time I had been back in my hometown for about 4 months and in a pretty lonely phase of life. He came along and brought laughter, companionship, a walking partner, fun, and a fair amount of frustration. Having a social life outside of school and family still seems to elude me, but Max is always jumping, literally, with joy and excitement to spend time with me. I know, I know...I always thought people were odd who would talk about their pets as if they were an actual part of the family, but now I understand!! Seriously, he really was a tangible blessing that I believe God gave me just when I needed it.

summer school bitti!

Hooray!! I took my last two summer school finals yesterday. I faced my fear of chemistry this summer, and totally beat the heck out of it! Way back in the day when I went to college the FIRST time, I changed my whole "life plan" because I was too scared to take chemistry, well, there were a few other reasons, but that was a big one. Thank goodness God can even use us slackers who take the easy way out!

Nearly 2 years ago when I first felt like God was nudging me to go back to America for nursing school, my biggest hesitation was, "crap, I would have to take chemistry!" Nope, can't do that, God! But, as you all know, God always wins out in the end. Still, ever since then, I've been dreading this particular summer of chemistry and microbiology. If I couldn't do chemistry 10 years ago, what makes me think I can do it now??? I guess there's something to this whole "becoming a grown up" thing. Because chemistry was no big deal. Thanks to a great professor, and some mature study habits (who knew there really was something to this studying thing??), not only did I ace chem I, but I even let the prof talk me into taking chem II and aced it!!! I even discovered a love for chemistry, and if I wasn't so old, I might pursue that field more...:-)

So, this may not be the most interesting blog in the world to anyone else but me, but it sure feels good to know that I've beaten a huge, lingering obstacle!!

Now, for the fun...before nursing school starts in 2 weeks. I'm hittin' the road in the 'stang, and headin' up to Iowa! I saw Mandy's pics, and I felt very left out!! haha Looks like Iowa is the place to be, so here I come. Of course, Teri lives in the middle of nowhere, much like myself, so I won't be seeing any of the other Turkey's in Iowa. It's been over a year now since the infamous Rindy and Teri duo has been in action...it's time to reunite! Billy, we'll be sure to bring up great old memories of your antics. We might even have to play some Mexican train for old time's sake. No wait, yep, I still hate that game. :-)

Then, to top off the tatil, I'll swing by Oklahoma on the way home to check out Heather's new ev.

I'm sure I'll have some great stories from the next 2 weeks. I'll try to blog them. Sorry there's no pics...my computer refuses them. Hopefully there's a new imac in my near future...

Ok, so for anyone who still checks to see if I've updated...there ya go! Btw, it was GREAT to talk to all my dear Turkey family members last week. I'm still prayin' about how to get back over there! :-)

Hadi bay bay!

Hadi-freakin-ya!

I'll update already. :-) I know, I've been a complete blogging slacker, but, you have to know that once Liz told me I needed to update, I HAD to wait at least a week. :-) Life just seems so mundane here, that I never really feel like there's anything worth writing about. And, my computer has decided not to let me upload any new pictures. And, what's a blog without pictures??? So, here's the latest on my life here in Pleasantville:

This past weekend I enjoyed Riverfest in Little Rock, AR. Train totally rocked the river!! There's nothing quite like listening to an awesome rock band with thousands of sweaty, drunk people sweltering in Arkansas humidity underneath a gorgeous sky. And, in the midst of those thousands, I ran into a great college buddy who I had not seen since college. Random!

Summer school starts tomorrow. Joy. Chemistry and Microbiology. I bought my beautiful "visorgogs" today. They're cok guzel. Every morning for the next 5 weeks, I'll cover every inch of my skin with clothing in 100 degree weather, and sport some very chic plastic goggles for my 8 AM chemistry lab. Surely a good blog or two will come out of that experience!

Ok, there's my much anticipated update. Becca...email me a good time to come see you in Houston this summer. Same goes to you, Aimes, for San Antonio!!

Peace out!