Quick note

So, Jason is gone to Atmore, Alabama (???No clue where that is??? Middle of nowhere near Mobile, I think). Anyway, this morning as Jason was packing for his fire class (more about that later) Toby was pitiful once he figured out Jason was leaving. That dog is very attached to the "pack leader". Here is a pic. of Toby pouting on Jason's suitcase.
(As an aside- what a cool boy job my husband has that he gets to take a class on setting fires! The inner pyro in me is slightly jealous!)

Get over it!

So, for those of you who have known me for any length of time, you probably know that I hate hospitals. Maybe it is because I have spent too much time in them as a patient, maybe my fear is just irrational. Whatever the case, I have always disliked hospitals. They are creepy and dirty and full of germs that are just waiting to make me sick! (I told you I didn't like them!) In college my friends worked on helping me eat at the creepy "hospital McDonalds" (the McDonalds located inside of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center). I did not want to eat with people who were sick, ew! But eventually I did, and I lived to blog about it (I probably should have been more worried about the fat and calories at McDonalds than the people there). For those of you who work in a hospital, I applaud you. Thank you for helping make people well- you are awesome! I have actually worked for a hospital myself, not IN a hospital mind you, just FOR the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. My office was never located where the sick people were, which I qualify as "hospital". Anyway, by this point you probably think I am weird or uncaring or in need of a psychologist.
I have a point, though, I promise. So, in the Speech Language Pathology graduate program we are required to have experience with both children (yay!) and adults (scary!). This semester I am doing an internship at the Tuskegee VA, which is hospital-like, especially the nursing home. BUT, I love it! The people I get to do therapy with there are amazing and I hope I have half their enthusiasm for life should I ever go through what they have been through. I decided that to celebrate conquering my hospital-phobia (surely that is a real condition with a real name) I would make a list of all the things I love about working at the VA, in the most HIPPA friendly way possible (if you don't know about HIPPA, be glad).

1. I get to work with Veterans; people who have served our country selflessly and fought for our country, even when no one supported them (i.e. Vietnam)
2. My patients are some of the happiest people I have ever met, but they are my patients because they have had strokes, TBIs, or some other horrible medical incident. Still, they smile and always ask how I have been.
3. All of my patients think I am REALLY young. I mean really young, like 18. Sweet!
4. The elderly say the darnedest things. Such as "I know I am older than all you people" (patient looks around the room then motions to the guy on either side of him) "well...maybe not you or you!"
5. I get to observe (and one day participate in) a cool medical procedure called a Modified Barium Swallow. Ask me if you really want to know what that is.
6. I get to see people get well, however slow and laborious that may be, I get to see progress in people, knowing that I just might have had something to do with that! Helping people communicate again is pretty amazing!

Slow Down

"Oh, I don't want to let go
Of all the things that I know
Are keepin me away from my life.
Oh, I don't want to slow down.
No, I don't want to look around,
But I can't seem to work it out,
So help me God."
--"Slow Down" by Third Day

24Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
--Matthew 16:24-26

For those of you that don't know, I have about a 45 minute drive one way to work each day. During this time I have plenty of opportunities to listen to many different things on the radio or I can switch to a CD. Most mornings I listen to Rick & Bubba and then in the afternoons I listen to Sportscall. This morning after Man2Man at church I didn't really have the urge to listen to Rick & Bubba, nothing against them but something in me just said to listen to the new Third Day CD. My dad and I went to the Music Builds Tour in B'ham last Thursday and he bought the new CD but is letting me borrow it this week. It's awesome and I'm going to have to buy my own copy! So I popped it in and down the road I went.

At Man2Man this morning we talked about Matthew 16:24-26 and how that relates to our daily walk with Christ. One of the topics that kept coming up was how busy we can get going about our lives and how easy that makes it to forget about or ignore God. We can get so caught up in trying to make another dollar or doing that next deal that we think we can handle it on our own. We think we know what's best for us when in fact, God our creator ultimately knows exactly what we need. We need Him.

We have to slow down and let God do His thing. We have to be humble and take the time to listen to what He has to say. I'm not always the best at doing that. I get up early in the morning to go to work and many days I work late. Time is precious when I get home. It's easy to go about my day and feel very frustrated when I go to bed. I'm tired and I don't feel like I've accomplished much. I'm learning that if I just slow down, take a breath, and let God take control I will be in much better shape. It should be a simple thing for us to accept but our sinful nature trips us up. I'm constantly working on letting go and slowing down.

At first I didn't draw a connection between the song and the scripture but after I kept repeating the song it hit me. I think God was saying "you're gonna listen to this song until you hear what it's saying!" At least that's the way it struck me. You might have different thoughts about it.

A Few More Songs

What I Needed

Man2Man

Today was the first meeting at Cornerstone (our church - www.cornerstonebuzz.org) of Man2Man. What is Man2Man you might ask? It's a new weekly meeting on Tuesday mornings at 6:15 AM of the men in the church and any other men in the community that want to attend. The purpose is to bring men together to uplift them and hold them accountable for subjects and things in life that are uniquely....well, men stuff. There will be a brief message from the Bible and somebody will share a real life story each week then we'll break up into smaller groups for discussion and wrap up with prayer. Oh yeah, breakfast, juice, and coffee are included for free!

We had an awesome story and testimony today from Mark Fuller and Josh Agerton (Pastor of Connections - www.joshagerton.com) gave a brief message on The Armor of God from Ephesians 6:10-18. Any guys in the Auburn-Opelika area that might read this I strongly encourage you to attend. I truly believe God has ordained these meetings and lives will be changed.

Sweet Friends

I believe that a mark of true friendship is that no matter how long it has been since you have seen someone you feel like no time has passed. Not that you aren't sad you have missed out on events in the person's life but that their presence is always comfortable and easy. I got to have some precious (and unexpected) time this weekend with some true friends, one of whom I had not seen in over a year because she has been in Asia since last August! God has blessed me with amazing friendships and I am so thankful for them! Having even a short time with my friends was just refreshing for my soul and the distance between all of us made me value our time and our friendship even more!