Baptism

I would just like to go on record and say that of all boring, stoic career choices... nursing is not one!
This was made especially apparent to me while working 3rd shift on Monday.
Storytime:
I have some really great colleagues that I work with at my nursing home, but I don't know if I realized how completely good natured they are... I picked up part of 3rd shift to help out and the aides immediately began plotting...
Apparently, nightshift has been having some problems recently. Plumbing problems apparently, because multiple times they have large areas of water on their clothes... very curious.
Well, for my official baptism into the sacred world of nightshift, they decided that I also needed to get in on this baptism. One of them lured me down the hallway with a bogus patient problem... and the other was waiting in the doorway of a vacant room to pop a water balloon all down my back!!
oh, yes... I kid you not!
They are just that vicious!
Now, to be fair... they did loan me a couple balloons for a chance to get them back... which I did quite masterfully, and with only minimal complications. But that wasn't the end... see, before I left they decided that since I was just going home to change anyway they should get me again.
2 more water balloons
I finally come in to say goodnight for the final time... and this time, hang the balloons... they chucked straight glasses of water at me!! (*apparently the original plan had also involved a backpack super soaker as well!)
But I still gotta love 'em! They stood at the door and waved as I drove my soggy butt off into the night.
Then last night, I was clocking out, and they came at me again! This time, they only got the back of one of my pant legs... but that was largely because of my swift foot action!!
Needless to say, I think it's obvious that while nursing may be one of the more stressful jobs out there... it also comes with quite the set of joys and just plain, downright fun!

So come to find out...

Spinach and Strawberry Salad... yeah, it keeps really well. Which is a good thing cause its been in my fridge for over a week now, and with my stellar fridge ridding skills, salads very rarely stand a chance!
I threw out something undistinguishable the other day. Very pretty array of blues, greys, whites, and the original yellowish substance; fuzzy texture too, like someone's velure jacket. (yumm!) I'm pretty sure it wasn't mine though, and unless somebody is taking microbiology and needed something to culture for endospores... I think it might be okay for that to hit the garbage. (I hope the cat that likes to raid our trash doesn't get sick... oh, wait, yes I do!)

Completely off topic, but... Group projects suck. I just got put on a team with perhaps the most over acheiving members of my class... crap! One of them genuinely is that smart, one is the perpetual question asker, and the other, well, I'm not sure about that one, but it can't be good. Basically meaning that I am going to have to work my tail off on this project to ensure that I get all my participation points... crap again!

In other news today though... the confidence is definitely back! Booyah! Gotta love how God is constantly renewing me like that! Man, He's good!
Speaking of which, I had a perfectly lovely evening last night talking with some dear friends about their weekend and how God was moving at a retreat that they went to. It was fun to hear/see the excitement in their voices/faces!

Hmmm... guess that's about it for now... I'm actually supposed to be sleeping right now, cause I am working until 3am tomorrow... we'll see how that works. I've only ever done that once before, and I was bushed the next day after that one, but dragged my butt back to work anyway. This could get interesting; I am planning on consuming at least 4 liters of Mt. Dew and that should take care of my consciousness for a while.
Experiment on!

Knowing

I had noticed it disappearing little by little...
I think it has to do with our constant, fast pace
My slow deliberate steps no longer matched the cadence
One trip can do that to you
Mess up your entire outlook on life
Just like that
No warning
No chance to alter course
I wish I could say one day
But that wouldn't be true
It took me days to come to that place
Now, I felt it slipping between my fingers
Sifting as if sand through the crevices of my digits
Bits of the joy
Something of the peace
But more of the confidence
I think it came from knowing who and what I was
There I was a "mzungu"
A student
A nurse
A missionary
A companion
A compatriot
Now, that is complicated
I am a majority
A student, who would rather not be in a classroom
A nurse, who wants to throw her life away
A missionary, longing for her field
A companion who's moody
A compatriot of mixed dedication
I miss the confidence
So I went searching for it
Too many long nights, fruitless days, trivial pursuits, lackluster relationships
Suddenly it all makes sense
It had never left
I was the one running
And not from the confidence
But from the One in whom I find my confidence
Stupidly, blindly running from His open hand
Outstretched, supine palm
Holding exactly what I wanted
Needed
Now, I am back
Kneeling, contrite
And wonder of wonders
I am restored with a full embrace

Randomness

Okay, so this is really random, but I was just thinking about how one of my good friends always makes fun of me for having a million tabs open when I am online... and I looked up and realized I was doing it again. Yes, I have a million tabs open once again... so I thought I would post on here my absolute absurdity of internet tabs...

* Yahoo Mail (0kay, so that one isn't really that weird, right?)
* My Blogger account (obviously) (side note that usually I would also have open one or another of my friend's blogs as well)
* Nursing across the Lifespan (school junk, don't ask...)
* My Gmail account (yes, I have 2 e-mail accounts, and yes, they have the same address)
* The official Arsenal FC website (yes, I am a closet soccer fan)
* Luganda Translator (for those random convos with my UG pals, and because I am still trying to learn a little of the language)
* Chipati recipe (yeah, cause I want to make them sometime... but I need to get a nice big skillet first)
* Facebook (uh, duh!)
* Pandora (Natascha Bedingfield playlist currently)
* Hep A vaccination time frame search (cause I think I was supposed to get my 2nd shot like 4 months ago... oops!)
* Google search for the definition of "fop" (well, I had an idea of what it was, but if in doubt always look it up!)

Okay, so you're the judge... pathetic or what?
(I think I'll go delete some of them now... *shuffles away embarassed*)

My Insufficiency

Man, do you ever have those people that you feel connected to from the beginning of your friendship? Do you ever have those same people be the people in your life that your life is the most different from?
I have one of those people in my life right now. I dearly love this person, like a sibling to me. But, when I look at the way this person is trying to live their life, all I see is emptiness. It breaks my heart, and yet I don't know what else to do but to pray and love this person.
I feel insufficient for the task of loving them though. Maybe that's a good thing. Cause honestly, I can't love this person on my own. Divine help definitely needed. I think I need a heart about 70x bigger than mine. I guess maybe I feel so weird because I am not used to feeling unable to listen to and love people... especially people that I feel so connected to. It's just strange.
See part of my nature/spiritual gifting includes really loving to sympathize/empathize with people. I love listening to their hurts, sharing burdens, supporting them, talking through things together... So its completely off that I feel completely unable to do that adequately for this person.
Maybe it's just God's way of saying that I can't do this on my own. Which I know... intellectually. Maybe I need to learn it more by heart instead of just by head. So maybe this "weirdness" is God-given to make me not screw this one up.
I just feel like I am holding a crystal vase in crisco encased hands. One little slip, and I don't know how it will turn for the worst. Delicate movement and steady hands are needed, and I feel very strongly my insufficiency and own fragility. I have a huge propensity to royally botch this, and yet I feel that the stakes of a soul are so high. Maybe its how openly this friend has embraced me that makes me scared of doing that one little thing that will send them over the edge into hate.
Because this friend also NEEDs me to be in their life. Reaching out so far for anything that resembles love. My heart breaks to think of them continuing their search and winding up in all kinds of sad places. Already I can see how my hesitancy about issues makes them question what they believe on that subject. They don't understand how or why I do the things that God has laid on my heart. Like running off to Africa when I could have a good paying job here, or saving myself for marriage, or being forgiving of people that have hurt me so badly. But God, in time, I hope this friend can look past me, and who I am, and see God for who He is. May I be the conduit of something bigger, something worth living for, something great and grand, an adventure out there only waiting to be accessed!

How I want to stake my claim on this friend for Christ and His glory!

Wild Horses

I feel these 4 walls closing in
My face up against the glass
I'm looking out... hmm
Is this my life I'm wondering
It happened so fast
How do I turn this thing around
Is this the bed I chose to make
Its greener pastures I'm thinking about hmm
Wide open spaces far away

All I want is the wind in my hair
To face the fear but, not feel scared

Wild horses I wanna be like you
Throwing caution to the wind
I'll run free too
Wish I could recklessly love, like I'm longing to
Run with the wild horses, run with the wild horses!

I see the girl I wanna be
Riding bare back, care free along the shore
If only that someone was me
Jumping head first headlong without a thought
To act and damn the consequence
How I wish it could be that easy
But fear surrounds me like a fence
I wanna break free

All I want is the wind in my hair
To face the fear but, not feel scared

Wild horses I wanna be like you
Throwing caution to the wind
I'll run free too
Wish I could recklessly love, like I'm longing to
I wanna run with the wild horses, run with the wild horses!

Breaklessly abandoning my self before you

I wanna open up my heart tell him how I feel

Wild horses I wanna be like you
Throwing caution to the wind
I'll run free too
Wish I could recklessly love, like I'm longing to
I wanna run with the wild horses, run with the wild horses!

I wanna run with the wild horses

yes, Janalee got me hooked on this song by Natascha Bedingfield.

Another Wasted Week

So I have been off school and work for the last 3 days, and have yet to do much of anything productive.
My few accomplishments for this week:
* Watching 5 Disney movies in one day (how do I live with myself) and assigning characters to most of me and Jenna's blog friends... (post on who's who to come)
* Washing my weight in laundry (no, seriously, I had let way too much pile up), and folding/hanging most of it, and properly storing said items
* Getting a tax prep program to figure my taxes... (unfortunately I don't get nearly as much back this year, I don't think)
* Multiple interactions with friends over lunch, tea, dinner, just hanging in the living room with my roomies...
* WAY too many really lovely IM convos with my dearest and best pals (No, David, I am not online all the time, sometimes I just don't shut my comp down...)
* Obtaining, loading, and using a new webcam (good to see you all again!)
* Random visit to Elvira with my LG (she's a fiery 65 year old!)
* Sleeping in! (gloriousness!)
* Making BBQ beans yesterday (which were quite stellar despite my general dislike of BBQ flavoring)
* Increasing my daily prayer time (can't get enough of that)

Things I should have done:
* Blog posts (anybody notice an severe absence of posts this week?)
* Baked bread (I am always saying that I would bake more if I had time)
* Worked ahead on school (there are a few things I could have done)
* Scrapbooked the rest of my Africa pictures (I have all the pages set up, I just need to sit down and finish it)
* Read more (the Bible, C. S. Lewis, Eldridge, etc...)
* Prayed more (can't get enough of that!)

Aluta Continua

Okay, so that was a stupid post title... one of my friends used it for something recently, and it is a supposedly majorly African phrase which means "the struggle continues".
Hence why it is appropriate for a blog defending my stance on the whole Valentine's day thing...
Now, first of all, I should like to state the preface that I am not anti-Valentine's per say... in fact, a very important historical event was staged on Valentine's weekend that shaped the course of my life (i.e. my parent's marriage ceremony).
I am however, reminded every year... (with varying levels of bitterness/annoyance/hope that it is a day singularly for COUPLES). Unfortunately, I have never had the uncommonly good or bad luck to actually be one half of a couple on the day itself... so I am naturally biased to its existence and celebration.
Normally, I would be all for a day when people give each other flowers and candy... but there's something about a day set apart for silly almost-monetary displays of affection that kinda gets my goad if you know what I mean.
I will have to say, this year was nowhere near as bitter as some years... neither was it as hopeful as some years. I wish I could join my dear sweet roommate in absolute contentment, but that was not the case on the actual day. I also wish I could join another friend in absolute indifference, but I am not there either.
Let me tell you about my day briefly and you'll see why...
Woke up late... ah, that's a good start to any day!
Took a shower... again, pretty good so far.
Hung out and joked around with my roomies... love those girls.
Put my paycheck in the bank and got gas and 2 Mt. Dews... ever notice how much you really appreciate that paycheck when you are down to like $2 to your name?
Drove out to Ogden, music blaring... love it!
Helping my BFF's mom address wedding invites... funness.
Kicked Tater's butt... hard... lol! (guess he'll keep his dirty-work-on-my-car-gloves out of my hair next time) *hey, his mom laughed!*
Gave my BFF's fiance the other Mt. Dew... he always brings me one, so I thought I would repay the favor once!
Joked and laughed while addressing more invites, and talked decorations... I love brainstorming planning.
Joked with BJ about marriage and told him it was too much work. He said that I would get married eventually... I love that kid; somehow he knows exactly what I need to hear; and he called me his sister, which made me feel good, cause I def think of him as another brother.
Drove back into town, grabbed lunch at the house... LO rice and beans (they were still stellar).
Off to work... got to wear jeans!
K-State lost to KU... boooo!!
Work went well... yeah!
Got off work... came home to an empty house and thought about being depressed...
Jenna came home... we went grocery shopping at midnight! (gotta love Wally World!)
Fell into bed exhausted, and not really so much caring that my Valentine's Day was spent largely alone. My God was still with me, every step of the way, and I have great friends!
Now, after writing this... I've got to say that I am a whole heck of a lot closer to the contentment end of life. Guess sometimes you got to look at your life and count your blessings, and then things start to pale by comparisson.
*btw, in other news today: another one of my friends just got engaged last night. I had a feeling... (actually interestingly enough, I've had quite a few "feelings" that came to pass... hmmm, matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match???)

oh, its good to laugh sometimes!

Running

So tonight during Ichthus God had some things that He kept bringing to the surface... It started during prayer before Ichthus. It was weighing on me to the extent that the devil actually had me wanting to leave the room, (with a great excuse of running slides). I should have stayed behind and had someone pray with me right then, but I ran... like a scared rabbit.
But God was not content to leave me alone. He sought me again, hidden up in the balcony running power point slides. And this time He almost brought tears. But once again, I had to keep clicking away, so no time to deal with these issues. Running again.
So afterwards, I knew what I needed to do... go home and pray things through. So I looked for any and every person that I knew to talk with them. Ended up having some amazing and encouraging convos, but once again running.
Returned home to find my roommate and friend headed out the door to a party. Invited to go along... and man... I paused for a long time.
This time however, I decided to stop running. No, I need to stay in tonight.
But alone in my empty house, I find myself once again running... I made a float, popped popcorn, checked all 4 of my e-mail accounts, peeked at my facebook, logged on to look at my grades online, checked my blogger dashboard.... I'm still running.
Decided to write this blog post... still running.
Decided to stop writing this blog post, get down and dirty, on my knees with the Lord. I know He's gonna tell me something I don't want to hear. I know I am going to cry. I know that afterwards I'll feel better. I know that its gonna be a struggle every day.

But this time, when I run... it needs to be into His arms. Not away.

The Goofy Smile

Monday this week was probably one of the best and worst days of this year so far. For starters, I stayed up late Sunday night trying to get work done for school (it was due Mon at midnight, and was turned in at 1030, hey, I'm not one of these last minute people!) Then it was up early, because I had to go in and do my skills testing for school (not the least bit intimidating, especially after failing the earlier one!). But first I had to work on careplans some more. Oh, and I did manage to squeeze in a beautiful chat or two with my favoritest, bestest guy friends from UG. I call them my "Bugos Boys" but they said that made me sound like their mum, so now I use the label to irk them a little! (cause I dearly love to tease people!) *background: they lived 4 blocks from me when we were staying in the Bugolobi flats this summer, and while it was completely out of the way, it hardly ever failed that one or the other of them would walk me home and make sure this 'mzungu' made it safe. They are both precious brothers in Christ.*
After skills testing... and yes, I did pass this time! (Praise the Lord!) it was back to working on careplans... but first I decided to actually eat something. Hmmm... not much in my cupboards because I don't get paid until this Friday. Looks like rice and beans it is! *I loved, and I mean LOVED eating rice and beans this summer. I wish I knew how to make beans the way that they did, because they were amazing.* But my knock-of beans were not half bad, and eating them with fresh rice and juice... Ahhhh! Heavenly!
I also got to have an amazing talk with Millie *a really good friend of my roommate Jenna's who is staying with us for a while* about Africa. Millie just recently got back from Niger so we compared experiences and laughed about African things, and what we miss and what we don't. I love talking to people about Africa; it makes my day every time!
Then to round out my beautiful day, I went to Step Afrika dance at McCain. Oh, I could have died right there. That was perhaps the most wonderful thing ever short of going back to my beloved UG. You should have seen the goofy smile that I wore the entire time. Some of their dances weren't entirely authentically African, but I still enjoyed that. And people actually clapped! *I have this huge paranoia thing about people that I am around that clap really well at the begining of the song, but by then end no one is clapping. I swear that my arms hurt this summer from the constant clapping for 2 hours during church!* But, the dances were beautiful, well coreographed, heart melting <3 (for me), energetic... I felt completely revitalized by the end, and had a strange yearning to take up dance (even though I am a white girl, and basically I don't have the right genes, let alone the right rhythm!).
So we all trouped home, and after finally turning in the dreaded careplan, me and Jenna and Millie all decided to hang out and tie scarves in our hair. *which just FYI, Jenna's didn't work at all, even when I tried to help, so sad :( * Of course I tied up my hair with my African scarf the way Oduka showed me, and it looked amazing!
Sometimes I think that I fall in love more with my calling to Africa when I am not even there. Its the little things that get me. Like hot water in the shower, being able to leave the windows open cause its 75 degrees in February, looking at pictures, eating tillapia and chips or rolex and pineapple or just rice and beans, *what I wouldn't give to get my hands on a Mirinda fruity!* And its silly things like talking to someone with an African accent, or wearing my rhino earrings, or my "opens", or listening to music with African beats, or Hillsong songs that we sang over there.
Okay, guess I will quit ranting now, but all this is the reason for the goofy smile on my face. Its one of those things that happens when you are in love, or so I am told...

Inspirational sayings

Every year it happens... it comes around to that delightful time of year when everyone graduates and you need to get them a card to symbolize that you actually realize that they did in fact make it through their 5 years of school for that bachelor's degree. And since you can't get them a card that says, "We had doubts... but you surprised us all! Congrats on your Graduation!"... you naturally fall to looking through the MOST ridiculous greeting cards ever!
There's one that I swear I see every year. The line goes something like this: "Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." Anybody see a problem with this statement?
A. We have already been to the moon, and there's nothing up there but a whole ton of a lot of dust
B. ... Hence, why the only shooting for the moon that anyone does anymore is in card games! (oooh, pitch anyone?)
C. If you shoot for the moon... and you miss... you'd still have to travel 4.3 light years out of your way to even come close to the nearest star... and that still doesn't put you "among the star(s)" (and seriously, if you don't realize that you shot wrong until like 4.3 light years down the road... eeek! ya might have a problem!)
D. I would also like to point out the mathematical likelihood of you hitting something 4.3 light years away is severely diminished if you can't hit something 238,857 miles away...
Yes, obviously this particular phrase really perturbs me, but I think its more than that. Maybe its that I see too many people in life that really honestly have entirely no clue what to do with their lives once they get through with school. Yeah, there are the honored few who really do love whatever they have gone to school to learn to do, or have some place that they are definitely going to live. But all too often I see graduates looking around at family and friends for advice. Or surveying the entire globe and getting completely overwhelmed by the enormity of options that are open for them.
I think that the other thing is that people try to offer hope and meaning to life in a congratulations card... which just isn't real. There's only one source for hope and meaning in life, and if your card doesn't include Him, its bound to sound flat, pathetic, and fake.
When we look to our futures its not supposed to be with fear and apprehension. Its supposed to be with confidence, knowing that though we may not know where or when we are going... we do know Who we are going with. And life should be looked at like a grand adventure! Never knowing whats around the bend, but never needing to until you take those last few steps and see it for yourself. Minds open to dream, heart and hair free to soar on the wind, feet carefree to dance along the path, hand in hand with your Savior.

Vice

So I completely told Jenna the other day about a vice of mine...
And I do it especially when driving by campus, and it's bad... but its so fun.

It's this: I like to label people. Yes, I know, isn't that completely awful of me as a person? Don't I know that if I do that, people will do it to me as well? Oh, yes, but I really find it amusing.
Maybe it stems from that time, way back when, that I loved to read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. One slight glance and he knew all about a person (how many years they had spent in China, their profession, relationship status, where they were the night of February 4th at 7 o'clock) Maybe its an innate need to categorize and sort out people, learned from years of my mum's organization skills. (which she uses for good, I might add) Or, maybe its just a device of the devil (as it appeared was Jenna's opinion!).
Now, just for clarification, I do NOT, emphatically not, approve of any type of stereotyping. I have been a sore subject of a little bit too much of that in my life! (seriously, I'm a single white female, I was homeschooled, middle-class, large family, townie, goody-two-shoes Christian kid, teacher's pet, you name it... I could probably fall under some sort of stereotyping.) Probably one of the other reasons that I have a really big heart against any sort of prejudice, cause to some extent I know how it feels.
But labeling and stereotyping are not the same thing. Stereotyping is finding out about someone, and making judgments based on one little peice of information. Labeling (at least the way that I see it) is looking at the whole of a person and their interactions (usually from a distance) and giving them sort of an honorary title. For example, I don't suppose that any of you have ever read the description for the facebook group "99% of the people that you will meet in college"? It is one of the more funny things that I have read recently. And I mean, really genuinely funny! I laughed out loud for real when I was reading it.
So the scenario goes something like this: I am driving along a certain street next to campus which has about a million crosswalks littering it making it completely impassible to cars during those unfortunate hours when everyone and their dog gets out of class. While waiting for yet another string of slow moving pedestrians to cross the street... I start to notice behaviors and subsequently label the individuals parading in front of my hood. "Miss shifty-eyes" (her honorary title) is obviously a freshman. You can tell by the way that she awkwardly shuffles her handful of textbooks, not to mention the '16-day-hike' looking backpack which undoubtedly houses her entire collection of other textbooks. I swear she checks the street 3 times both ways before crossing even though I'm sitting here perfectly stopped, and the cross signal has been activated. Then there is "Covered Cory". This bright young individual never fails to hit the cross walk signal on his way by... bother the part where its already blinking away, and my vehicle is perfectly stopped. If anyone does decide to run him over, at least he'll be covered in a court of law, cause "by george, he pushed that button!" Then there is "Jogger Judy" who looks like she could run circles around campus all day and not look just as sweaty as she does now, or "Workout Wayne" who, quite honestly just needs to 'get 'emself a girl' because working out that much just isn't healthy. Not to mention the instructors that you see, and oh, boy, half the time you can tell just from watching them, that there's a lot of things you would rather do than sit in their class, (like for example mowing 8 acres of grass in 98 degree weather in a sweater, with scissors) ... see how interesting it is?
It may be vice, but I think its fun...

Failure

So today I didn't fail at something! Yah!
I know what you are thinking... do we now celebrate not failing? As opposed to celebrating success, and decrying failure? Well, if you have my track record as of late, then I would say yes! By all means, rejoice in non-failure!
Well, now I know you are curious... and what exactly have I failed at recently? Well... get comfy, cause its a long list! First and foremost, you need background... I was homeschooled from K-13th. It is a little known fact that homeschool kids are much more brilliant than other kids, having no chance to socialize with the rest of the world, they naturally withdraw into themselves and become brilliant! That much being said... it naturally follows that they don't fail. At anything. I come from a long, preverted line of this thinking, (even though I hate stereotyping... which is different than labeling... which I enjoy, but I digress... that is another blog post for another day) ... eh-uh! ... anyway, so imagine my utter horror when I was told that for my chosen field I had to take... wait for it... wait for it... Intermediate Algebra. Yeah, that's what the kids take who are really bad at math. Uh, i.e., not ME! I proceeded to sit in the back of the class doing sodukus and correcting the teacher whenever she did anything wrong on the board. (She didn't like me very well... I'm not sure why...) I didn't even show up for the last two tests and passed with an A. My LPN math class I passed with a 101%... yeah, I don't know how I did that. So yeah, that's the background on me and math.
So I was not really worried about my math test for RN. I mean, its not that hard of math, right? Oh, Jo, how you overestimate yourself! I had to get a 100%, I got a... *ducks head*... 72%.
Then I promptly got a 77% on my Nursing test. (passing is a 78%, ooooops!) Fast forward a little farther... completely bombed my assessment practicum too!
Yah, I know, I am on quite the roll here! So today I got my second test scores back. I passed! In fact I passed with enough to spare to pull my score up out of the gutter.
Then sometimes I just think that God is so gracious to me. It blows me away. Even after I failed that yesterday, I was able to rationalize it, think clearly, not freak out! Yah, don't tell me that wasn't God! Cause Jo on her own, would definitely have been freaking out!
I guess it kinda brings me back to not worrying about anything but praying about everything, telling God my needs and not forgetting to thank Him for His answers, and receiving God's peace which keeps my heart and mind quiet and at rest as I trust in Him!
There's a plan in the madness people! I have NO CLUE what it is, but there is a plan! I for one, am resting in that. Join me?

Disparity

Pros:

• Homemade salsa, Steelers (my chosen team) victory in the SuperBowl, Mountain Dew, getting to wear jeans to work

Cons:

• Aggravating residents at work, rude family members

Pros:

• Meeting Fatuma from Uganda, who I was randomly sitting next to in church today... okay, well and actually listening to the Spirit, that I was supposed to talk to her, and finding out that we have SOOO much in common, and getting her phone number to call and talk later!

Cons:

• Today being the last day of the weekend

Pros:

• Saying goodnight to Jenna, and turning out her lights for her (I felt like a mom! lol!)

Cons:

• Knowing ahead of time that I won't get enough sleep tonight

Pros:

• Getting a compliment on the small size and functionality of my purse (booyah, take that all you purse packing ladies!)

Cons:

• My tests from last week still aren't posted, so I don't know how badly I failed them

Pros:

• Getting to talk to a certain "someone" before going to bed tonight

Cons:

• Finding an odd area of petechiae and excoriation on the bottom of my right foot

Pros:

• Picking up my maid of honor dress and shoes for a May wedding

Cons:

• Trying on the dress and finding out that it is too big

Pros:

• Knowing that with my God, every day is a gift meant to be used wisely, handled tenderly, loved completely, and lived fully.

p.s. guess the pros win...