2008 musings

1. 
Was 2008 good for you? YES! Finally graduated.
   
2. What was your favorite moment of the year? Graduation, starting my first job, sitting in first class on my way to Hawaii,
   
3. What was your worst moment of the year? Starting my first job-- this is good and bad... pretty scary.
   
4. Where were you when 2008 began? At our friends house watching the firework going off and finishing a nice game of Cranium.
   
5. Who were you with? My husband Brian, Friends Matt and Judy, our Cousin Gene who is in Afganistan.
   
6. Where will you be when 2008 ends? Hmm... Brian, Matt and Judy... possibly a few more friends but these are the mainstays!
   
7. Did you keep your new years resolution of 2008? I think they were to walk with God daily and to lose some weight. both of which I did all year. However there were days I didn't sit down an formally spend time with God and there were days I gained back all of that weight I lost.
   
8. Do you have a new years resolution for 2009? To see the new Church plant start! To reach my goal weight which I did not do this past year.
   
9. Did you fall in love in 2008? More in love with my husband.
   
10. Are you still in love? Yup.
11. Did you breakup with anyone in 2008? Nope. I did have to part with my PA class- which almost seemed like a breakup since we spent so much time together!
    
12. Did you make any new friends in 2008? All my new co workers. Grew closer to the John family with Jim and Darla, Matthew, Erin, Jason, Kylie moving here. Met my new niece on the day she was born! Also have found new couple friends in fun and unexpected places!
    
13. Did you travel outside of the US (or your home country) in 2008? Went to Hawaii for the first time! Last week we went to Canada. I guess that counts.
    
14. How many different places did you travel to in 2008? Las Vegas, Phoenix, Hawaii, Washington
    
15. Did you miss anybody in the past year? Geez, yes.
16. How many concerts or plays did you see in 2008? Creation 2008 at the Gorge! So glad we made time for this this year! Also Amy Grant reunion tour. Wow I loved her so much when I was 10. Casting Crowns at the Puyallup Fair.
    
17. What was your favorite book in 2008? I really liked Twilight as I have mentioned before. I also finally read One Tuesday Morning- by Karen Kingsbury- gave me a new perspective on 9-11. Also Phillip Yancey's Prayer- rocked my devotional world.
    
18. What was your proudest moment of 2008? Graduating!
    
19. Where did you work in 2008? In my first job as a PA-C!
    
20. 
Favorite TV shows(s) of 2008? Grey's Anatomy, Criminal Minds.
21. Favorite Band(s) of 2008? Katy Perry, Casting Crowns, Chris Tomlin,
    
22. Favorite Place in 2008?

 Home with my husband!
    
23. Favorite person(s) to be with in 2008? My husband Brian who I am practicing growing old and grey with...
    
24. Favorite stores in 2008? Washington Square.
    

Anyways- thought it would be fun to chronical the year this way! On to 2009!

Oh Come Oh Come Emanuel!

WE made it North for the holidays! So glad that they plow major highways. We drove 7 hours north up to visit my side of the family and almost got stuck 4 blocks away! All the major highways were plowed so we did just fine the first 7.95 hours. IT was the last 4 blocks in my mom's subdivision where we weren't sure if we were going to make it. Trying to make our little sedan plow it's way through 2 feet a snow was a quite a bit to ask of it. But we made it and promptly put our chains on for the rest of the trip!

We spent Christmas with my mom, Sister and her friend Greg:

My mom is so beautiful!

And this is my sister and her friend Greg.

My sister went all out this year. She is quite fond of shopping and finding great deals. She and Greg stuffed our stockings and filled the tree with presents.

I got some MAC brushes from her- just what I asked for!
WE made cornish game hens and turkey ham for Christmas dinner.
And spent the rest of the day playing games and watching "It's a wonderful life."

The next day we broke a chain on our car and had to find a tire dealer in the middle of the snowstorm that had chains for our tires. AFter this ordeal we headed over to my dad's house for dinner and the big poker game! I bowed out after a few hours after losing all my chips.
We hadn't seen my brother in a while and got a bunch of pictures:
I really like his beard. And I am not a facial hair person!

The siblings!

Group shot- My Grandma was visiting from Texas!

The next day we visited my friend Wendell who is in the hospital with a number of ailments. Mostly due to the fact that he is in his 80's and his body is wearing out. Lots of prayers that he is back on his feet and feeling better soon.

We also went to Canada to go to see "Bedtime stories." We had to go to the space ship movie theater- Brian even got a picture! It's shaped like a space ship and you can see it from the highway. It's just fun to go Canada- just as long as they let you come home in the end!

Now for us it's back to work! The snow has melted and we are busy receiving mail and packages that were held up due to the storm. We plan to ring in the new year with out friends Matt and Judy- what are your new years resolutions??

Here we come a Caroling!

I had to work Saturday clinic this weekend which went well. On the way home I slid off the highway due to ice. I knew I shouldn't be driving my Focus without chains on it! Luckily I was only stuck for 5 minutes. Two nice trucks pulled up immediately and two guys pushed me out lickety split! It was like it had never happened.

15 minutes later we were at church set out to carol to the homebound members of our church. It was so much fun. We really shouldn't have been driving in the snow. But I ended up in the car of a retired Pastor who used to live in Alaska. He was a maniac and drove with confidence. We had 6 stops to carol at but really ended up expanding it to 11 different locations. The first stop we met a church member whose wife was in the hospital. So we went sang with him and dug out his car. Later we ended up over the hospital and sang to his wife. While we were at the hospital we saw another church member who had just had a knee replacement. And even had an encore request from a few rooms down in the hospital. It was so much fun! I don't know if I've ever had that much fun caroling in my life.

Then we went over the inlaws and spent the night! Kathy's Christmas list mostly consisted of people spending the night at her house so we decided this weekend was the weekend to do it. WE had them come pick us up with their 4 wheel drive because we couldn't make it out to their house on our own with the snow. We had so much fun being treated like kids again and watched Christmas movies till we could no longer keep our eyes open.

The next day we made it back into town and had Christmas with Jason, Kylie and Hannah! They hosted and Kylie made an awesome fondue spread. Two types of cheese fondue and chocolate. It was so yummy. She is a great cook. (Maybe because she actually seems to like cooking :) and Hannah was darling in her Christmas outfit and stocking cap!

Slushing through the snow!

So what a week! I worked half days Monday and Tuesday at the clinic this week. Monday I was the only provider in internal medicine that was able to make it clinic. We woke up in the am to 2 feet of snow! Most people were late due to having to spend an hour shoveling themselves out of their driveway but luckily my wonderful husband had put chains on our car and partially shoveled out our driveway the night before. Score one for preparedness. Other people were stuck in California, were without power, or live in the country thus had trees falling over their mile long driveways.
Luckily we live in town and slipped our way over to both our jobs the past two days! I just feel blessed that we have not lost power, had a pipe burst, or got snowed in like many of our other friends in the area.

Tonight we decided to start out on our trip up North! We both had already planned on taking Wednesday through Sunday off and making the 7 hour drive to visit my side of the family... They apparently have a foot of snow so we were pretty concerned that it might be ice the whole way.
3 PM today we set out and slushed the whole way to the mall. We hadn't finished my Christmas shopping since we have had ice and snow for 10 days- the hour to drive to Portland to finish the shopping seemed unsafe and foolhardy. Since I was with Brian we were at the mall for 15 minutes and had all the shopping done! We were on a mission. I won't say what what we got but score one for planning ahead.
By then it was 6 PM. Yes it took us two hours to make the hour drive to Portland. Can you say ice and packed snow and crazy insane drivers the whole way!

We had an hour to cross town to get to the Rose Garden to watch the Blazer's beat the Nuggets- yippee!!! I got to wear my new Brandon Roy jersey that I got from Ricky and Kathy for Christmas!

Next we set out North- once we got past Vancouver we felt confident that we had made the right choice. The ice has left up and even though it is supposed to snow another two inches here the roads are so much better than at home already! So we are sleeping in Longview tonight and will finish the drive in the AM.

Tag- you're it!

01. What are your nicknames?
My husband has many and rotates them: Fruit Cup, Trouble, Cup of soup, Banana Pancakes
My family calls me Sunni (which isn't my favorite but I let them cuz of love.) I call myself Sunnishine or Orangeshine depending on the online setting. My sister when she was little called me Bonsai.

02. How do you style your hair?
Carefully- straight most of the time- sometimes with a little curl. Right now it's a short bob with side bangs... much like my profile picture.

03. What's your favorite or least favorite Christmas song?
I love carols. Have memories of the Carol of the Bells from choir. Paul McCartney's Wonderful Christmas time since it's so happy.

04. How many colors are you wearing now?
Pink sweat pants. Blue Cashmere shirt.

05. Are you an introvert or extrovert?
Extrovert. I love people- I do tend to live in my own little world. I am serious most of the time even when I am trying to be humorous. I think I have a gift in that I get a long with many types of people and tend not to notice annoying things about people until they are pointed out to me.

06. What was the last book you read?
Just finished Breaking Dawn- the 4th book in the Twilight series.

07. What's one piece of fiction that changed your life?

Lift changing?? I love Madeline L'Engle and her thought provoking fiction. A lot of Christian fiction has made me think about deeper things and praise God more.

08. If the person you secretly like is already taken, what would you do? hmm... being married I think the secret is out...

09. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?
Not getting my own way. This is a good one from the blog I got this from. Luckily have gotten my own way a lot lately!

10. What's your favorite dessert?
Anything rich and bad for me. Peanut buster bar fudge ice cream dessert. Cotton Candy!

11. How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?

45 minutes if it's a shower/blowdry/devotions/straighten/makeup kind of day. Every morning I give myself 30 minutes.... this is an ongoing problem.

12. What websites do you visit daily?

Facebook, hotmail, Blogger, Perez Hilton

13. What classes are you taking right now? And if you're not in school any more, what's your job?
No classes right now. Still have to sign up for guitar lessons. I am a PA-C!

14. Do you like to clean?
I much prefer cleaning than cooking but never quite have things cleaned to perfection- just a clean enough to tolerate.... delicate balance. I had a roommate when was a student missionary in Russia that was perfect for me. She was from Zimbabwe and loved to cook. So I did all the cleaning and she did all the cooking. Perfect- until we got another roommate who didn't want to do anything! Ahh.... she would make me homemade pizza with homemade crust 3 x weekly at my request.

15. What was the last song to get stuck in your head?
A worship song I heard on my new radio! Early Christmas present from my thoughtful and loving husband!

16. What's the last movie you saw?
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

17. Pirates or Ninjas?
Pirates- Ninjas seem to move too fast and Johnny Depp just seems fun.

18. What is your least favorite thing to do that you have to do everyday?
Cook.... but do I have to do everyday?... hmmm... mostly we get by with minimal cooking.

19. Best time of your life?
I would say a lot of it. Now is quite good. Sophomore year of high school. College.

20. What are you most looking forward to in the coming month?
Going to my hometown and seeing my family! Christmas. Katy Perry Concert with my sister.

Driving in a Winter Wonderland!

As I blog the snow is falling- ever so gently outside. We poked our head out a few minutes ago and noted that we got another couple inches. Which is nice because a lot of melted today while we are at work.

So here is our happy tree decorated and with presents underneath to boot. Not all of them mind you... I got bored with wrapping them last night. No the heat dish is not a gift this year we just have been using it a lot so it is still tucked up against the tree ready to warm our feet at a moments notice.

I saw 8 patients today so I guess my moaning yesterday paid off. A lot of orthopedic complaints. Fun fun! Knees, hips, feet, backs.... come to me and I will send you radiology for a quick picture!

Gotta go watch the rest of the Blazers game!!

A change of pace

So last week we were going going going. Party party party.
This week we have snow which has taken us for a 360... in a good way!

We drive slower, we both have been going to work but even work is slower.

I have averaged 2 to 3 patients per day this week which makes for a lot of sitting around doing CME, decorating my patient rooms and goofing off with the nurses. Would chat with the docs but alas they have patients... :) They are in talks to open up the clinic to new patients. Which I am like yeah!!! Then I can have my own patients and a little more job security. There are so many senior citizens in the this community in need of primary care providers and I'm sitting around twiddling my thumbs. I understand it's a delicate balance. The clinic has seen a drop in appointments lately which they are thinking is due to the economic times and people just hanging on to their money and not seeking care unless they really need it. So time to open up the practice.

So we have been hanging out in our wonderfully heated home where we have had food and all the other associated comforts. Happy to report no frozen pipes or broken heat pumps! There is a few inches of snow outside and slush in the streets and all the schools have been closed. Fun for a change of pace.

Today was my day off... so what did I do?
I got up and was at my holiday gift exchange breakfast for work at 7 AM. Pretty good on a day off!
Then I was going to go to Portland but since it snowed all day today I decided to try and do more Christmas shopping in town and forego the trip.

This worked out because I got to babysit a baby!!! IT was so exciting. Our new friends Matt and Nikki both had to work today and the daycares are closed so I got to babysit their 6 month old. Only for 4 hours but he was pretty cute! And a pretty easy baby to watch.

Anyways- Shout out to my brother and sister-in-law Jason and Kylie who are celebrating their 2 year anniversary today!

Time to go--got a pressing Rock Band date with Brian.

Holiday highs

So... last blog I said this post would show pics of our decorated tree. Sadly we have been so busy that our tree is up with the star on top and a tree skirt but not much else. I am sitting and blogging but don't quite have the energy to get up and decorate it. Someday when we have children we won't be able to be this lazy!!

I just snapped this picture and Brian looked over at me and asked: "Are you blogging about our undecorated tree??" Oh he knows me so well.

I has been a great week though- last weekend we got our new bedframe:

Pretty spiffy-

Monday we went on a triple date to Chinese food and played Acquire. Our friends brought their 6 month old over and he scooted everywhere. So cute but I have decided I like the 5 month stage better- lets just keep them where they can't move and all they can do us coo and smile at you...

Tuesday we went on a double date to the Blazer- Magic game. They lost right at the buzzer. Heartbreaking. We were up by 5 with 50 seconds to go. 4 seconds to go we were still up by two points. As the buzzer rang they sank a 3 pointer and we lost!! But of course it is always fun to see them live in action!

Wednesday was my great day off. I ran around on hold with the insurance as I dropped off the vacuum to be repaired. Then got hung up on by insurance company as I was in line at the post office. I had a few hours of that exhilarating thrill of trying to juggle ten things at once and seeing if you can do it. Also got to go see visit Kylie and Hannah. She was 6 months this week and sat up for the first time.

Thursday was Brian's work party where we won this interesting white elephant gift!

Unfortunately Brian got sick Friday AM. He is battling one of those nasty viruses. I had to go solo to the dinner party to see our visiting friend Rachel.

Church today was packed! There was no parking and no seats! Rachel and I sat in the back crammed up against one of the camera stands. And we got to see the school children put on the church service. So precious.

Then we had a church planting lunch! The conference gave us the go ahead to church plant and we are moving forward- praying about meeting in March.

So squeezing a blog in here after a fun filled week! I love this time of year. There is always stuff to do!

We get to leave in 45 minutes for my company Christmas party. It's at the casino... maybe we will hit the jackpot ;)

Merry Christmas

Musings at the end of the week

So... this is a Friday night blog. It means I survived the week. It was a pretty good week. I am learning so much at work. Which is good because my schedule is getting busier.

A saw my record of 13 patients on Monday. Yesterday and today I saw 11. It is starting to scare me that I may have to see double that number on a regular basis because it takes me most of the day to see 11.

I started out today by partially removing a toenail. It was way fun. I did a nice digital block (or course). Toenails take a little strength to remove so I had a little fun removing the crazy thing. WE shall see how it is doing when I recheck it on Monday.

The rest of the day I kept seeing lovely elderly patients with ears full of wax. Most came in for different reasons but each took me up on the offer of removal. Luckily my MA is still fresh and seems to enjoy earwax removal because I let her do most of the dirty work. I made sure she wasn't thinking dirty thoughts about all these requests but she still seemed up for more by the end of the day.

I keep telling myself to chart more in the rooms with my patients. We have electronic medical record so everything is on computer. I'm picking up the nasty habit of finding anything to do to put off charting. I was charting until 6 tonight. I probably could have left at 5 if I hadn't avoided charting most of the day. Staying till 6 isn't too bad. At least I don't have call... ever. I kind of like this job.

Last night we reprised game night with our friends Joe and Katie. Once again I led in Rook. Usually Brian beats me so I have to enjoy it while I'm ahead.

Our bed came today! IT looks so pretty. I will have to take a picture and post it.

We also got our Christmas tree. I felt so loved today. WE ordered our Christmas tree from our local Adventist school. Brian was going to pick it up over lunch today- I checked my messages at lunch and the first one is from the school secretary, my friend Quincy, she's like.... it's 10 AM and I have your tree... I can drive by your house... if you get this message. (Even though we were supposed to pick it up.) The next message is our good friend Matt, who is a school teacher at the school. He's like.... I have your tree in my truck... I'll deliver whenever you are home. Luckily he got a hold of Brian before Brian borrowed a truck to go pick it up himself. Then I get home tonight and I get an email from Kathy, my mother-in-law that says: I remembered you are getting your tree today. Do you need help picking it up??
So nice to have thoughtful family and friends! It is resting in our garage. Next post will be of our decorated tree!

Headaches and massages

Here you go a family thanksgiving photo:

This is 2nd Thanksgiving with Brian's immediate family

So... I have had a headache for the past 3 days. I often get low-grade headaches and just live with them but this week I'm like... ahh... stop already! My day off today- my headache just got worse. I'm like okay- I'm tired of living with this.
I got a awesome massage from my friend Clara this AM thinking it might go away. It went away for a few hours but then came back with a vengeance. Grrr!!!

I tried Topamax a few years ago for migraine prevention. I started taking it for a week and got really really bad heartburn. Heartburn isn't a side effect of Topamax so I thought it was a coincidence. I tried to restart Topamax a few months later and I got worse heartburn. So much for preventing these things.

As a child I had a lot of headaches. I saw a specialist and had to keep a headache diary. I remember putting my head up against the fridge as a child hoping for some relief. I remember trying to sit so still or not go up stairs because it would make the throbbing worse. Uggh.... so I kind of grew out of the severity of them... but days like this remind me of how bad they were when I was little.

I went to the gym today thinking maybe if I forced myself to work out it would take my mind of this headache. I drug myself through step class. The whole time was there I found myself counting down the seconds and having visions of passing out and hitting my head on the step. I made it and now I sit here- exhausted, cranky, and my head still hurts.

Anyways... just venting. Hope you guys are having better days!

Rabbit Rabbit

Happy December!

Amazing weekend. So much fun!

Friday, AKA the day after Thanksgiving AM, Brian and I got up at 4:30 AM and headed to Fred Meyer to scoop up some stuff we didn't need. It's just fun to get up that early. By 7 AM I was done and Brian was on a mission. So he and his mom headed in to PDX to hunt for more bargains and he bought us a bed frame for our bed. We are both excited because we actually have never had a bed frame. And it was marked down from 700's to 288. Sweet!

I then headed off to Rite Aid to scoop up the free with rebate specials and then was at work by 8 AM.

Sabbath I worked my first weekend shift! I really was quite slow and boring. I only saw 4 patients and two I stole from family practice. The phone in internal medicine just wasn't ringing. Was off work by noon. Sweet!
Then we headed over to Jim and Darla's for a really fun meal of quesadillas.

Sabbath evening we went out on a double date with our friends Joe and Katie and saw 4 Christmases. It was really really funny. There were some crude parts so deserves the PG-13 rating but we all enjoyed it. Then we came and played a 2 hour game of monopoly and a few hands of rook. I love game nights. I think that is one of my favorite things about the holidays.

Sunday we stumbled out of bed and headed over to Rick and Kathy's for Thanksgiving 2. The food was just was good (more turkey!) and we had just my husbands immediate family so it was nice to spend more time together. And Hannah was there.. so I got my fill. I wasn't quite filled up after having to share her so much at thanksgiving. Reprised the dutch-blitz (I won this time!) and played some Acquire.

Today- I had to go back to work. Wow. I am so liking this set up. It is so much easier than being a student. I love having control over my life and not having to jump to someone's bidding. I make some of my own decisions and also get to make the decision to ask for help when I need it. I saw my record number of patients today- it jumped from 9 to 13! My MA Laura and I were so excited. I was pretty busy but have a lots of faith I will get faster and be able to see lots more patients. I started with only 1 patient on my schedule so it was kind of a crazy day.
Sent one person to the ER (vomiting every 5 minutes post MVA 5 days ago- can you say Head CT?) and another gentleman direct admit to the hospital (nasty abscess directly over a ventral hernia- probably needs surgery and IV antibiotics).

Working on the 3rd book of the Twilight series- so addicting! Chelsea was right in telling me to read them quite a while ago. I'm just trying to pace myself. Totally recommend them if you are over the age of 18.

Blessings

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are so blessed. WE got to go to Brian's Uncle Jim and Aunt Darla's and do Thanksgiving John family style. I was great with that- we just had to bring the games, coldstone premade pie, and veggies and dip. I was sad that my mother in law, Kathy, was too sick to come. Got to play catch phrase with Brian's Grandpa and be taken down in Dutch Blitz by my brother in law Jason. Got to briefly hold my Niece Hannah. I say briefly because her darling 5.5 month self was the hit of the party. We were trying to coach her to crawl but she may have a little while before that takes place. I will post the family photo once someone emails it to me.

Tomorrow we are going to get up at 5 AM and go shopping but honestly Brian and I are so blessed and spoiled we really don't need anything and I haven't gotten my Christmas gift list figured out. Then I plan to be back in McMinnville early enough to start work at 8. Yes... I do get to work the day after thanksgiving and Even Saturday clinic this weekend but I figure it's a fine trade off to have 5 days in a row off at Christmas. Christmas we get to make the trek to visit my side of the family!

So blessings:
1. A wonderful husband.
2. Two excellent jobs.
3. A roof over our heads.
4. Christmas lights!
5. A toshiba laptop to blog from.
6. Talking with both my mom and my dad today.
7. Bilateral 20/15 vision thanks to the greatness of LASIK surgery.
8. New makeup from MAC- courtesy of my random shopping spree last week.
9. A great church and an awesome God led church planting team.
10.A Master's degree
11.This time last year I was in Ecuador celebrating Thanksgiving with Ecuadorians and Australians.
12. I have all my front teeth!
13. I had my wisdom teeth removed for free back in the day- since I worked for the surgeon.
14. Got to read the 2nd book in the Twilight series last night... Amazing!
15. My house is clean.
16. My rock band drum set.
17. We got to go to a Blazer's game already this season.
18. I know what an Omental infarction is and I got to diagnose it last week.
19. I barely cook but for some reason there is plenty of food in my house.
20. Our friends Matt and Judy
21. Women's Bible Study
22. My husband likes to shop. In a manly way.
23. The game Dutch Blitz
24. My mom and my sister who are teaching me the value of clipping coupons.
25. I have a secret Katy Perry addiction and have concert tickets to see her in January.
26. Our treadmill that we don't use enough
27. The new siding on our house that my dad and I put on.
28. Union Block Vanilla Spiced Chai
29. Hawaii vacations.
30. Orange is my favorite color.
31. My fantasy football team.
32. Putting puzzles together
33. My daily sudoku calender
34. Facebook- it's kind of an addiction.
35. Walking with Jesus daily.
36. Salvation.
37. 37. 37. 37.

Just another musing Monday

It's almost Thanksgiving! Just have to work a few more days.

Yesterday Brian and I put up Christmas lights! So beautiful! WE are going for something not quite as over the top as the pic on the left. Still have some more work to do.

Today I tried really hard to diagnose someone with appendicitis. I knew something was up when they didn't have a fever or an elevated white count. Alas, they had what the radiologist referred to as an omental infarction. Which I couldn't even find on up-to-date. So now working them up for why they would have an omental infarction. EKG, holter monitor and the like. Fun fun.

Oh we got to do lots of fun things this weekend but I did stretch myself and taught youth sabbath school. I hadn't been to youth in over a year and then got asked to teach. The lesson was on Nehemiah and how he was the King's cupbearer. Nehemiah performed his duty faithfully and one day he wasn't quite up to par and the king noticed and asked why he was so sad. And then Nehemiah shared the burden of his heart. He wanted to rebuild the city of Judah and the temple. Nehemiah goes on to be a strong leader and mobilizes other Israelities to accomplish that goal.
So do the task you find yourself in faithfully. God can do great things.

Thanksgiving is almost here!

Yesterday was my wonderful day off.
I bought a binder and some baseball card holders to design an awesome coupon holder.
Then I went to brunch with Brian at the Crescent cafe- waffles in the middle of the day.
Then Kathy and I went shopping! IKEA. I got some cute curtains and a duvet cover. All for under 50 dollars.
Then I went to MAC and I got my makeup done. Here is the result.
Pretty fun...


Then we went to the Blazers vs. Bulls game. Whoo hoo. Oden, Rudy, and Batum looked awesome! And we won by 42 points. A total blow-out but a fun blowout because they were dunking like crazy. We were going for a 50 point lead. Free Chalupas. yippee!

Anyways. Got to go to lunch with Kylie and Hannah today. And I only saw 5 patients. Developed an Asthma protocol for the department... I feel like I'm back in school. I keep telling myself the patients will come.

Oh and Bible study was awesome on Tuesday: The question was- What do you LOVE about Jesus?

Planting in the middle of winter

Church planting! Didn't I tell you that God was doing awesome things? We just went to the church board meeting and they approved our church plant application. So now its needs to go through two committees at the conference level and then get approved in church business meeting and we have all the backing of the home church. Lots of hoops but so worth jumping through.

There was some discussion but mainly about technicalities. The church board was resoundingly supportive of a plant church. If things go smoothly we should be starting our first service February or so. It just feels good to be approved of.

A call went out to church members asking for more core group members. Currently there are 6 of us and we are looking for a few more to take part in these planning stages. So keep praying!

It's holiday season!

We love the holidays. We've been playing Christmas carols since before Halloween. Today I'm going to get all our Christmas decor out and just start looking at it. I wanted to start hanging Christmas lights but since my back hasn't been doing well Brian doesn't want me to get up on the roof so must wait until the men can do it after Thanksgiving or so.

Work has been trying. I love seeing patients but have had some challenging cases. I just wish I had all the answers and had so much more experience than I do. I'm always running to my office and looking things up or running to ask one of the great docs in my practice. I know this is normal and this is where I am at in learning. However, by the end of the day I just sit at my desk with my charts and think... ahh... am I going to get better at this or will it always be this way? Luckily my coworkers are quite supportive and although I have a fear that one might might say in frustration "Sunshine, you should know this already, quit asking me this stuff!" no one has said anything of the sort. They have been very encouraging and keep reminding me that I need to ask these questions and can't rely on myself. So humbling.

We had lunch with some friends from Southern Adventist University in Tennessee yesterday. We saw them at church a few weeks ago and said hey... we knew you in Tennessee and now you are at our home church in Oregon! Such a fun Adventist world. We had fun playing guitar and reminiscing about friends we had at Southern. Brian and I met at Southern and have so many great memories from there.

Our friends Gabe and Maria

Then we went to the new James Bond movie. It was action packed. I definitely recommend it if you are male. Us girls enjoyed it okay but it was definitely geared towards the male sex.
Next we went home and watched Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was actually kind of cute and I got all those chipmunk songs stuck in my head.
Now going to start putting up those Christmas decorations!!!

Musings in the middle of the week

I've become a tad bored. I'm learning lots at work and gathering up my patient base. It's only my 2nd week so I don't have that many patients to see. So I've decided to take guitar lessons.

I got a number for a guitar teacher but if anyone has good recommendations for someone close to McMinnville I need a good teacher. And now that I am finally out of school I have time to take lessons.

I was a little down when I got off work today so Brian decided to take me out for dinner. We went to Golden Valley Brewery. Yummy.

And today a friend loaned me the first book in the Twilight series. I've decided to join the craze.

Lately I've been trying to use coupons. I've never been good at clipping coupons and my sister is trying to teach me. So I've got 100s of coupons now and I've separated them into about 4 envelopes. So whenever I got to the store I'm like now where is that coupon??? So I've been searching on the internet for a coupon holder. I've realized you can make a binder and put baseball card sheets in it. Keep all the coupons in the baseball card sheets so you can see them easily. The other option is to get a check file and sort each coupon by category. I like the idea of seeing all the coupons with the baseball card sheets but it seems a little bulky. And I like the idea of the check file because I could potentially keep it in my purse but it's a little harder to sort through when you need something.
I'm proud to say that I've saved at least 20 dollars so far. I have a coupon for practically everything!

Musings before I lay me down to sleep

So Chelsea pointed out that I was a little critical of myself last blog. That is true... But I actually kind of think it's cute of me to do everything half way. Most things I come back and finish promptly and even the crazy long term projects are what they are... I've been cross stitching these four fruit patterns for a couple years and making a collage for my dining room wall in my mind for at least a year. But I like that about myself... what is the point of finishing the project right away? Then I would just have to go find a new project to occupy my time. And the cool thing about me is that I usually finish the projects in my mind eventually. Like next spring I will finish planting grass seed.

Today I raked up all the leaves that had fallen in our backyard. I've decided I really like raking leaves. It's just such a big mess that looks better then cleaned up. But I flared up my sciatic nerve while doing it. The past few months I've known that I was aggravating it and that I needed to rest and let it calm down. Well I thought things had calmed down but it was pretty mad at me for raking leaves.

Later on today we went into Portland to meet my mom for lunch and I was limping around the mall... uggh!! I hate pain... it makes me cranky. Luckily I went to my Physician Assistant a month or so ago, who is awesome and graduated from my program 7 plus years before me, and got some cyclobenzaprine just for this occasion. I knew we were heading in this direction.

So yeah... had another church plant meeting tonight. Totally awesome. We're going to start looking for more core group members now that we have the main focus down on paper. We wanted to stay small at first- kind of a too many cooks in the kitchen kind of thing. It's going to happen! Pray! Pray! And I think I might start taking guitar/keyboarding/drum lessons so that we can beef up our worship team. Can't decide which one. I already have a guitar so that may be the least expensive to start!

So since I mentioned my mom and haven't been posting a lot of pics lately I thought I would post some pics of Ecuador around this time last year.

My mom taking a steam bath in a box in banos... She came back the next AM for another go.

My mom standing on the Equator... She is such a trooper. Right after this we got on THE MOST crowded bus I've ever been on and booked it back to Quito. We didn't want to miss our flight. IT was so crowded we didn't actually get in the bus cabin and stood with 7 other people in the cab with the driver.

All the leaves are brown

It's definitely fall here as the pile of leaves waiting to be picked up in our backyard attests. They were beautiful when they changed colors yet stayed on the trees. I'm waiting for the final leaves to fall off so I don't have to rake twice and also for it to stop raining!
The rain is nice though. Earlier in October I posted about planting grass seed in the dead spots of our front yard. Well I no longer have to put the sprinklers on it since the rain is watering my little seedlings and they have filled in the patches so nicely. I have little green sprouts all over the patches I did in the front lawn.

Unfortunately I only got around to doing half the front lawn. It was tiring work! Plus it started raining. I figure the lawn is not really a focal point throughout winter and the next prime opportunity to plant is spring time anyways.
This is me: I always have a few halfway finished projects.
Last week I was folding a bunch of laundry and in my mind I'm like this is boring... maybe I'll come back and finish it later. But then I told myself... Sunshine you are doing it again... you are going to come back in 30 minutes and look at this pile of clothes and think what possessed me to not complete that task??? Since I really had nothing else pressing to do so I made myself complete it.
I leave things halfway done all the time. Like I will unload half the dishwasher. and Clean half of the house. And do half the laundry...

I have been making a window box to go over our back doors for a few years now. A couple years ago I bought the wood and screwed a nice little box together. Then I hit a roadblock and left it sitting in the garage for two years. A few weeks ago I finally covered it with fabric and it is almost ready to go up. But what is it doing? it's sitting in our spare room now. Because I haven't put one final touch on it and I can't find the brackets to hang it anymore and I know I bought them a few years ago.... The eye opener on the window box came when Gene was home from Afganistan and I mentioned the possibility of him helping me hang the thing. He said: Oh you are still making that box? I think I helped you with that last time I was home on leave. So now I have a goal. Have it hung by the time Gene comes home.... 11 months or so away. That might be a bit speedier than the pace I have been going.

Yesterday I looked at my charts I had to still chart on and thought.... maybe I'll go do something else before I finish charting. So I went to talk to one of the Pediatricians about a case. Halfway there I noticed several of the docs had already left including her.... and I thought to myself.... Sunshine: you are going to be here all night if you keep avoiding charting... you could be done by now!
Plus poor Brian was calling me sick at home. Our first cold is upon us. I have a touch of it but it always seems to hit Brian more. He wanted me to bring home food.... and what am I doing... ignoring my charts while the person I love is home, miserable, and waiting for me.
So I'm proud to say I finished my charts in about 15 minutes!

Anyways. Work is still going well. I had a day where I walked out so excited about my job and just feeling like I made the best decision in the world by choosing to work there. Yesterday I had one particularly difficult patient where my supervising physician pointed out a few things on her extensive med list that I should be thinking about that I wasn't and I had a great learning experience. I'm finding in this profession that I have to humble myself. it is inevitable that I will make mistakes and when I realize them I have a tendency to want to just hide them and hope my patient miraculously gets better and no one notices that I made the mistake. But I can't do that. So several times this week I've noticed something minor I should have done differently and sucked it up and called the patient... Umm... Mr. So and so... I reviewed your case a little more and there was one thing I thought we should do differently.

Why can't I just do everything perfectly??

Musings of a Working Woman

I've got two days of work under my belt! So exciting. I wasn't too nervous on the first day and saw seven patients. I've decided Internal Medicine is a tad complicated and they tried to give me not too complex patients. The simplest thing I saw the first day was a urinary tract infection and even then they had dementia, was more confused due the infection, and were on Coumadin. So then I'm like oh crap... what can antibiotic least interferes with Coumadin?? So I run out and ask the Coumadin clinic PA and she says just pick one... they all interact.
Every patient I saw on my first day I asked a provider something about so there is definitely a huge learning curve. Luckily where I work I have 9 providers to choose from and all of them pretty much know my knowledge base and are open to me asking questions that I feel as if I should know.
The first day I spent the lunch break tapping a joint that got diagnosed with pseudogout. Now I hate orthopedics with a passion. I'm on my 3rd patient and I have this huge swollen knee in an elderly man. So I get an X-ray and I'm like arthritis, meniscal tear... Luckily I got to go ask my provider and he's like looks like pseudogout let's tap it. I didn't get to tap the joint my first day but it was cool to be involved in. Maybe I'll get to tap the next one :)
Later on my first day I had a patient newly started on prenisone for a different diagnosis who was now short of breath. I'm like.... prednisone is supposed should make her asthma better.... eek..... Anyways.... got through it.

My nurse is awesome... She recently graduated from Dartmouth and wants to go PA school after re-evaluating her pre-med track. So basically super smart and very capable. I already love her.

So today my second day I only saw 4 patients and had much more free time. Did spend two hours on a physical just for fun... Hey I had all afternoon. My patient was soaking it up. Will try not to get in the habit in the future. I think my employer is looking for productivity.

IT is the weirdest thing to hear people call patients for me and say hey I'm calling from Sunshine John's office. I'm like I have an office.... responsibility...

Anyways pretty excited. I really like where I am working. Feel pretty supported by people. But worn out. Glad tomorrow is Wednesday and it's my day off! sweet!

Another note... God is doing amazing things.
Just got back from Women's Bible study tonight. We talked about God's big heartedness and how while we were still sinner's Jesus to died for us. I just felt a closeness to the wonderful women there and felt like the Holy Spirit was really speaking to us and moving us to a closer relationship with God.

We also had another meeting about church planting Sunday night. Our pastor came to this one and we have a meeting with people from the Oregon conference tomorrow about what steps we need to take towards church planting. God is doing awesome things. WE have been praying about this for 5 years and I feel like God is finally saying now is the time and these are the people. So keep praying.

Musings on a fall Sabbath day

Pictures... Pictures... I've actually taken a few recently.

This is Brian's Halloween/ Birthday/ Blackmail costume.

It actually scares me how well he pulled it off.

This is Shantel and I last weekend

My street! It's gorgeous in the fall.

Unfortunately most of the leaves have fallen by now.

It was my last week before I join the productive money earners of society. Eekk... my first patient day is Monday! For now I'm bored and I've been creating my own kingdom on knighthood. Kind of getting addicted. We shall see how this changes once I don't have so much free time.

Yesterday was Brian's Birthday / Halloween. The night before we went our for Morrocan food. Way fun. We had to sit on pillows on the floor and eat with our hands. The food was really really yummy. And there was a belly dancer. On his birthday he actually dressed up as above and went to work. EEK!! Then we went out for Chinese and I answered the door to all the trick-to-treaters. Wow.... I got him a bunch of stuff for his birthday but one of the things he was really excited about was a nativity set. It is really cute and I am excited about displaying it for Christmas as a reminder of the Christ's sacrifice.

Speaking of that... church was pretty awesome today. We are holding evangelistic seminars so the place was packed and we sat in the overflow room with the needs to be replaced speaker. Our guest speaker was talking about God sending Jesus down to die for us and what a sacrifice it was. He had some points I hadn't thought about lately such as if Jesus had sinned while he was on earth then God would have had to excommunicate JEsus and all would have been lost. Basically sin separates us from God. Jesus came down to be a sacrifice for us so that he could be the bridge between us and the Father. IF JEsus had sinned and not lived a perfect life on earth than all would have been lost and he would have never seen his son again. He was talking about the difference between a gift and a loan and how God gave his only son to us. He gave him not knowing if he would ever see him again.
Then my head springs up with arguements like okay... if God doesn't exist in time such as we do was it really that much of a sacrifice since he knew the end from the beginning??? I do not know how God works... I think that's what it means to walk by faith. God is so big and I am small.

One of my favorite Ellen White quotes from the Great Controversy is this one:

The plan of redemption will not be fully understood, even when the ransomed see as they are seen and know as they are known; but through the eternal ages new truth will continually unfold to the wondering and delighted mind. Though the griefs and pains and temptations of earth are ended and the cause removed, the people of God will ever have a distinct, intelligent knowledge of what their salvation has cost. The cross of Christ will be the science and the song of the redeemed through all eternity.

Right now (As it says in Corinthians 13) I am looking through a glass darkly. When I see Jesus face to face my understanding will increase in regards to salvation and what a sacrifice it was. I look forward to learning more and more about what it means to be redeemed.
Right now I take it for granted more than I am amazed by it.

I will praise Him in the good times.

I had so much fun this weekend! The only downside to it was that I left Brian at home and missed him tons.

I went to Seattle to see my little sister! We are 7.5 years apart so now that I am good and old she is a Freshman in college. Well... she did take two years off after high school. (That makes me even older) She just started at the University of Washington. So I decided to go out and check out how she is doing. She recently left all her friends and family, moved to Seattle with her crazy attack cat, got a little studio apartment, and started school.

So I got on the road Thursday and stopped to see my old college roomie Chalaina. We went out for Thai food and wandered the maze of IKEA. (That store scares me a little).

Friday I went used clothing shopping with my dear friend Elder Mayer (Ella Mae). WE got some good deals and also went and watched my sister in action at the coffee shop she works at. I have to say that Elder Mayer is the quirkiest friend I have and she spent the day entertaining me with crazy stories about her roomates and made up animals. LAter we all went to UW campus vespers put on by an Adventist church that a bunch of my friends are a part of.

AFter vespers Shantel (my sis) and I had a craving for slurpees and we went in seach of a Burger King. They have the best tasting slurpees. We then found out that THERE ARE barely any metropolitan Burger Kings. I guess Sushi is a little more popular than fast food. AFter driving around searching for non-existent Burger Kings and two hours later finally arrived at a real Burger King where we were told that their Slurpee machine was broken. So we went to Dick's and had burgers and floats.

The next morning we went to church, got invited to lunch, and spent 3 hours in a corn maze lost. Got to hang out with my friends Jesse, Novently, and Ruby and others. Had an awesome time reconnecting.

The next morning we went to Rite-Aid and got all the free rebate stuff, clipped coupons from the Sunday paper and went to Portage Bay Cafe for some great organic breakfast.

Then alas... my time was up and I had to hightail it home to get ready for my first day of work. But I arrive home reassured that my sister is healthy, happy, studying hard, and adjusting. She also has quite the cute little set-up in her little apartment. I am so proud of her. Right now she is majoring in Chemistry which was my major. We will see if she likes it as much as I did.

So... my first day of work orientation went awesome. Checked out my desk, computer oriented, and just about every 3 person I saw told me how excited they were that I was working there. I felt so welcomed and wanted. I haven't seen any patients yet so now I can't wait to just get in their and start so that I don't have to wonder what that real first day will be like. I am excited.

A planting we will go!

So I know I just posted yesterday but I am so excited!
Even though I left the house for only a three brief moments today so many great things happened!

First one: I left the house to get Brian a new iphone. We have both been waiting for our plans to finish so we can get rid of our stupid window's mobile based Treo's. Oh my Treo... it doesn't recognize my memory card, I once lost all my contacts into an unknown memory land, and it does not have easily downloadable ringtones. I will soon be selling it on Ebay if anyone wants to buy it! Brian is currently clipping ringtones for his new iphone off itunes. Wow... so much more user friendly. I, alas, must wait until February to upgrade mine.

Second one: I left the house to go acknowledge reciept of my new approved OREGON board license as a practicing PA-C. (I've heard horror stories of being held up by the Oregon BME in particular so no small feat.) While I was at work I learned that my day off is going to be Wednesday. Which is exactly the day I wanted. And I got a new nametag and a box of business cards with my name printed on them. Sunshine John PA-C here I come.

Third one: I went to our church board meeting because they were going to approve a steering committee to approach the conference for the new church plant. Our pastor proposed the six people that were praying at our house about it last night: Our friends Matt and Judy, our uncle and aunt, and Brian and I. And our names were passed without question as the new steering committee for the church plant. It just feels good to be justified in the eyes of the church board and not seen as some upstart offshoot group. For the past week my heart has been screaming PRAY PRAY PRAY. So we will continue to pray pray pray about God's leading.

So awesome day. I actually spent most of it at home cleaning. But those are the awesome highlights.

I was blind but now I see!

So I haven't blogged in a few days because...

1) I've been busy having fun
2) I got LASIK... which is a bad excuse because I could see pretty much in 24 hours
3) God has been stirring me up about church
4) My cousin Gene is here from Afganisitan and we've been hanging out.
5) I've been busy selling things on Craig's List
6) I start work in a week and I have better things to do with my time than sit on the computer
7) I've been shopping a lot


So LASIK. I went in Thursday morning- I wasn't that nervous just wanted them to do it and get it over with! After sitting in the office for about 90 minutes signing paperwork and waiting to actually meet the Yale/Mayo Clinic bred surgeon who was going to sit and let the laser do most of the work I finally got to go under! 10 minutes later I was done. There was a quite a bit of pressure while they were cutting the flap in my eye. I felt like it was trying to push my eyeball to the back of my head but there was someone behind me counting down letting me know I only had to lay still for 15 more seconds. Then it was over and they were strapping on dark goggles on my face and pointing me do the door. I stumbled through it downstairs to the car since I could see but it was if someone has smeared vaseline over my goggles. I got brought home and fell asleep for 4 hours. By that night I could see clearly... well enough to drive! Now I am just stuck putting eye drops in hourly and I find my eyes get tired towards the end of the night. However, I am quite impressed that my eyes are seeing this well without complication only 3 days out!

Since then have had quite the family weekend. With a 5 generation picture Friday night and the other side of my inlaws Sabbath morning.

Tonight we just had a meeting about church planting! You know I've felt like God was stirring something up lately so we decided to take action. Our two good friends Matt and Judy and our Uncle, Aunt, and Nephew came over and we talked and prayed about starting a church. It was just awesome to finally get together after talking about it. We are going to work on meeting and praying weekly. Also going to invite some key people to join us. Pray for us. I am so excited about what God is going to do. And I think I have a lot of the excitement but other people in the group have a lot of practical wisdom and planning skills.

Tomorrow begins my last week of freedom before I start life as a practicing PA-C. I had a dream last night that it was my first day of practice. I was forgetting to chart between patients. And then for some reason I was scheduled an hour to do some sports physicals. It turned out to be a family of 6 that I ended up examining in the parking lot. (No idea why). I tried to tell the father that his ears were full of wax and he got mad at me. But the neat thing about the dream was that even though it was a chaotic and disorganized throughout I felt confident in my abilities. Very encouraging even if it is just my mind making up crazy dreams.

Housebound

So my mom has left and I am stuck doing all the projects that have been bouncing around in my head for the past 3 months (or longer). There are so many I don't think I will finish by the time I start work.
These past two days I have been touching up spots in multiple rooms of the house. I painted with 5 colors of paint today! I finally got out some primer and touched up the ceiling above our shower where the previous owners accidentally got some greet paint. I have been staring at that mistake while showering for over 4 years.
Also I have spent 4 hours patching the dead spots in my lawn. So much work. And I'm only halfway done. There has got to be an easier way.
Yesterday I even replaced the toilet seats in our two bathrooms. Pretty easy actually. The old ones were sliding back and forth and coming off. Annoying.
I put my bunk beds on Craig's List and had 3 people that wanted them in an hour. Cool. I highly recommend it if you want to sell something fast.
I've been trying to get around to posting my coffee table that I have for sale all day. Haven't been able to wedge it between painting and yard work.
Tomorrow I am getting LASIK. I am not nervous. Was a little annoyed that my paperwork specifically says I can't garden for a week. I am halfway done patching those dead spots. But I suppose eye surgery is something to take seriously. I am just excited to finally be doing it. And praying that everything goes well. Also excited to stop wearing my glasses that I have been wearing the past 3 weeks. I dislike my glasses.
My cousin came home for Afganistan today! Safe and sound for a 2 week break. We were supposed to have dinner together but he promptly fell asleep and to my knowledge hasn't woken up yet. But I'm sure we will hang out this week.
What else. My mom and I went shopping on Monday. I got a few work clothes at JCrew for 40% off since I had a coupon. I love shopping. So hard not working and knowing I have to pay off my school loans and looking at all those beautiful clothes.

This is one of the sweaters. I love that it is feminine but also makes me feel like a kid.

I also have been addicted to the impossible quiz. I'm up to question 92. I just want to beat it! I don't recommend clicking on the link unless you have time to be sucked in.

Farewell!

Women of Faith

So I've been a little busy these past few days! I have been to the Rose Garden Arena 3 times in 3 days. Since it is an hour from our house I am thinking about bringing a tent and living there. The first two days were for the Women of Faith conference. Way way fun. 11,000 women praising the Lord and listening to awesome women speakers. It the biggest women's conference in the United States. My mom came up for the conference and my friends Judy and Snahal came.
The theme of the conference was Infinite Grace. It involved speakers and Christian singers. One of my favorite parts was Sandi Patty. I grew up on her music and lately her stuff has been a little too operatic for me but I loved her testimony. She just was sharing what it was like to have a public divorce after an affair. And she talked about recovering from that and picking herself up and how big God is and his grace.
There was also another part where we were singing a song and the words were basically about not regretting past mistakes and how we have learned from them and they have made us stronger. I felt inspired. I had a lot of awesome experiences in high school with youth group and going door to door colporteuring. Now that we are married I sort of feel settled and lately haven't been as excited and passionate about God. We have been talking about shaking up church and really forming some great fellowship groups but it is hard to do that when you don't feel inspired or feel that there are the right people around to do it with you.
This week particularly the theme for me has been God is not finished yet. With that Chris Tomlin song I mentioned in last blog running through my head all week... Greater things are yet to come. Greater things are still to be done in this city. I feel inspired that, even though I have experienced great things in my youth and I have become a well nested married woman, God is not finished yet. I am still racing towards Heaven and have not reached the prize yet. God can do great things. So we shall see.
I've been praying a lot about what God wants to do at this stage in my life. This week I've been praying a lot about starting a prayer group specifically aimed to pray about what God wants to do in our city and with church. I've also been talking to a few people and it seems like God is giving them the same message about starting a prayer group as well. So we shall see. I shall continue to pray and work on starting this group.

Another inspirational thing was that I got to see my good friends Andrea and Arlen this weekend. They totally inspire me as a couple that are living their dream and stepping out in faith for God. They have recently moved to San Francisco to plant a new church with another great guy Ryan. So they have moved across the country, left everything behind. Got a job and an apartment. Now they are just praying and moving forward with starting a movement. They were in town to for a church planting conference and I got to take a few hours out of the conference and go visit them in their down time. I got to finally meet their son Caison who is almost 2. The last time I saw them he was in Andrea's belly. So cute! So pray for them as well. God is going to do awesome things.

Today we went back to the Rose Garden for a preseason Blazer's game! They lost to the Utah Jazz. Greg Oden did not have his best game. Their new player Batum from France looked awesome. They also weren't playing 3 of their main starters including Brandon Roy. They are going to have a great season.

So tomorrow on to spa day and shopping! My mom is going to be here a few more days. Then Thursday I'm getting LASIK surgery.

Life of a unemployed homeowner

So yesterday I got to go to a ropes course with a bunch of middle schoolers! My friend Matt was taking his class and knew that I wanted to go. Brian has gotten to go a few times and always talks about how awesome it is. It is at the North American Youth with a Mission Headquarters
They have a 24 item ropes course that they take groups and do team building activities. My favorite was the zip line. Brian was trying to get me to go down upside down but I was quite scared at the top and went down the conventional way. It was fun watching all the middle schoolers problem solve and try to work as a team.

I replaced the doorbell today. Felt cool with my power tools. I also bought two new toilet seats. Will figure out how to replace those soon. And I pretty much did nothing else. Wow.
I have so many projects to do. But I find it easier to wake up and waste time. This morning I watched the movie Jack with Robin Williams. True it was on VHS and a need to give it back to my friend tomorrow so technically I HAD to watch it.

I have been listening to Chris Tomlin's new CD: Hello Love. It's pretty good. I was inspired yesterday morning by track 4. It's called God of this City. The chorus goes:

For greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city. There is no one like our God.

It got me excited about church. We have been talking about planting a church since we moved here. Our church here in town is big and full of wonderful people. Lately there have been so many people it has been standing room only. Our church is pretty conservative as well and we are quite a bit more liberal than it. We've been praying about whether there is a place for two churches in our community. I got in the car with Matt on the way to the ropes course and shared with him about church and planting. Awesomely he had been thinking about church and planting as well. I think God is preparing for great things yet to come.

So my mom is driving down right now as I type to come visit for a few days! We are going to the women of faith conference at the Rose Garden with and my friends Judy (Matt's wife) and Snahal this weekend. Whoo. hoo....

Rainy Monday

So feeling productive on this rainy monday. Even though it is Noon:30 and I haven't showered yet.

I am even baking for lunch. Wow. Baked potatoes and fried/steamed zucchini for lunch. Pretty impressive for a non-cooker like me.
So I went to the gym this morning and then wanted to make a smoothie for breakfast. I was at the store and had all the ingredients gathered when I realized... hmm.... we haven't had a blender since I broke ours about 2.5 years ago. I think I just like the way glass shatters from a height :). So that is probably the most exciting thing I may do today. Buy blender so that tomorrow I can have that smoothie I crave.

Brian's 10 year reunion had a good turnout. He graduated with about 50 people in his class and about 20 showed up. It was fun to see people from Brian's life before I met him. Lots of smart cookies in that bunch: lawyers, phD candidates, and engineers. And only a few had children proving our generations propensity to save that for later in life.

Brian's Class Pic

Also got to watch some football with the family yesterday and took some cute pictures of my new niece.

The little family
Brian and Hannah

It's all going to burn in the end.

Today is my garage sale. I'm sitting in the garage blogging from the laptop. I woke up and it was pouring rain this morning and thought "good thing I set everything up in the garage". I peeked out the door to go put up the garage sale signs and realized people were already sitting outside in their cars 30 minutes early. Kind of a bummer that it is raining, but I figure that can be expected on the first Friday of October. I really just want to get rid of stuff. I didn't have time before this since I was busy rotating, graduating, and then studying for boards. I would say the most popular price in the sale is 25 cents. However... that can add up because I haven't sold any big items yet but have made over 150 dollars. Now if someone would just come buy my bunk bed I would have enough to finance Brian's 10 year reunion trip this weekend. Anyways it is now after lunch and the garage is pretty dead. I don't think I should expect much more due to the rain but have about an hour left until I close up shop. Boring!!

There is so much stuff that I kept. I just couldn't part with it. Or Brian couldn't part with. I don't know what to do with all of it. It is sitting in boxes in my office taking up pretty much the whole room. Ahh!!!!!! I figure if I sell the bunk beds and get wall to wall bookshelves I could maybe display all the books and DVD's and VHS tapes we have. But then we won't really have a guest room anymore. I could not get Brian to get rid of all this VHS tapes. Maybe when we are 80 they will be collectors items and we can make tons of money on them. We have two DVD's and one VHS tape of It's a Wonderful Life. We of course had to keep them all. Brian's favorite movie and all. But do you really need that many copies? Anyways- these problems are nothing compared to starving children in Bangladesh.

So leaving for the reunion in a little over an hour. Brian went to an Adventist boarding academy in the middle of nowhere, Oregon. Should be fun. I think Brian is a little nervous. I know I was nervous for my 10 year but when I got there it was a blast. I hope it will be a blast for him too. We even went to his 5 year reunion (no one was really there except for his classmate that was teaching there at the time). You see when you go to Academy they have Alumni weekend instead of individual reunions so it is a big event of all the honored classes. 10 years is nothing compared to those individuals there celebrating 50 years. I just realized while typing this that I am supposed to make something for potluck. (Yes there is an Alumni potluck). I really don't like to cook. And did I mention that I am not a good plan ahead person. Thus probably why I don't like to cook. I always have to go to the store for ingredients. Our friend Judy is coming with us. I think.... she's still deciding.

On another note- I got an email from the Oregon Board saying that I can now submit a registration request and pay them more money since I jumped through all the application hoops. I'm like.... I thought by applying they could just send me a license.... But great news that they will let me do the next step. I thought it would take a few more weeks.

The Benefits of Life

Biking!! I got to go biking with my friend Dawn today. We set out on our two purple bikes to explore the homes around the golf course. Those houses have the most perfect lawns.

I also got to go to my job and talk about benefits. So... confusing. They have an HSA and an FSA. I'm like what is the difference?? There are subtle differences but I'm like why would you want both? Unless you had a lot of medical expenses. But then even if you have both one is limited by the other. I marched over from the meeting over to Brian's office (since he is my personal home, auto, and life insurance agent.) and he called is brother in who is a life and health insurance agent and we figured everything out. I am blessed and loved.

Our women's Bible study started last night. We are meeting in a women's outreach center. She used to be a hairdresser and then was convicted to turn her salon into an outreach center. It is way cute and she holds lots of Bible studies there and makes smoothies. Since it was the first night we just got to know each other. There were some awesome testimonies and big prayer requests. One request was for a young man shot in the neck by a paintball who is the son of my friend Suzy's boss. He is paralyzed from the neck down and cannot swallow. It's been a year after the incident and they are remodeling the house so he can come home soon. Lots of prayer needed.

Watching the America's Got Talent finale- Brian and I have been a little addicted to it this summer. It's finally over!!

So gotta go... I'm signing up at www.mint.com for a breakdown on what we're spending on things each month. Gotta pay off those school loans!

Shoving boxes around

So today I am cleaning out our storage unit. Trying to clear it out by the 1st so we don't have to pay more rent. Borrowed a truck and am shoving boxes around and putting them in the garage. Then the plan is to go through them and hopefully decide to get rid of much of it by Friday when the garage sale is scheduled. Motivation. The only problem is I couldn't sleep last night!!!! I laid in bed for an hour and then got up and read an entire book. Even Now- by Karen Kingsbury. Definitely a feel good read. So only got 6 hours of sleep. Now to normal people that would be a survivable day but me-I need my sleep. Just ask my husband.

In fact somehow I managed to get a master's degree without ever losing sleep due to school. Now I may have lost sleep due to having too much fun but I always figured it would be more productive to get sleep and work the next day than to stay up studying and be cranky the following day. In fact most nights before tests I usually don't study- even if I'm not really prepared. Too stressful- I remember many nights where I would turn in early before a big test- start a new book and then end up staying up till 2 AM reading the book. Yeah- I guess I don't work well under pressure.

So this morning, as tired as I was, I went to the gym. By 10 AM I was so tired I was having trouble doing the cool down stretches and about to fall apart right on my gym mat. The concept of doing heavy lifting after that was a bit overwhelming. I was like- "I think I'll go home and take a nap..."

Yes it is true. I am whining about my poor life I lead- where I have no job, I stay up till 2 AM, and still, thanks to my great husband, can afford to go the gym. So thus I am pressing on and will at least get everything out of the storage unit today. I am halfway done. Just taking a little... break.

So I feel like I could be intelligent and talk about the economic crisis. The house vetoed Bush's 700 billon bailout this morning. I am not sure how I feel about it. I think maybe the companies should deal with their own mess and go bankrupt but then if society in general is going to hurt by these companies crumbling (meaning I or my friends or my family will suffer huge financial losses or hardship) maybe the bailout is a good idea. Not sure. Just happy that I have a job and my husband has a job.

And on another note I am totally kicking Brian's butt on our fantasy football matchup. Just waiting for tonights game to seal the deal. Right now it's like 113 to 78. ..... So glad he invited me to join :)