HAIR!

There has been much talk around our house this month about hair. First of all, we are always fighting an uphill battle against dog hair, since our 1 1/2 year old lab lives inside most of the time. One would think that he sheds his entire coat of fur every other day! Secondly, Jason had been participating in "No Shave November" (it is as simple as it sounds...men do not shave in the month of November). That means until yesterday, he had a full beard. I was impressed with how quickly he could grow a beard (apparently in man world that is something to be proud of). I was told that women are NOT allowed to participate in "No Shave November". Here is a picture of Jason and I at his grandparent's house in south Alabama the day before he shaved off his beard. Finally, I have been talking about getting MY hair cut for weeks. It is just long and scraggly and I am ready for something different. Bangs? Should I keep it long? Cut it short? Add layers? Highlights? Do you in blog world have any thoughts? I am tempted to go in to the salon and say "be creative" because I am tired of the no style style that I have right now. Don't worry, I am not brave enough to do that! So, all of that to say, there has certainly been a lot of talk about hair around here lately. What is our society's fascination with hair? Men are excited when they can grow a beard quickly, and disappointed when they begin noticing a receding hair line. There are millions of hair products available, from the "Hair club for men" to hair dye to cover that gray. Women are constantly inundated with commercials about shampoo, conditioner, mousse, dye, etc. Throughout history we have been vain about our hair, from wigs for men to fad hairstyles. Someone once said clothes make the man, but I wonder, is it really hair?

Blog Neglect

Yes dear blog. We have neglected you. We have not updated you on a regular basis. We promise to try harder in the coming weeks to keep you freshened up.

Stay tuned folks. I've got a million things running through my head. I just need the time to gather them together and type them out. The end of the year craziness has started!

2 Tuesday Prayers

So I have a lot going through my head today being that it is the day we vote on a myriad of issues both locally and nationally. My emotions the past few days have swung from indifference to indignation to fear to worry to carelessness...so basically all over the board.

It is hard for me to swallow some of the things people are saying this election cycle. The vile and hatred we have clothed in some of our arguments is appalling - on both sides of the aisle. We don't all agree and I think it is unreasonable to think that we will ever all agree on everything. The founding fathers didn't agree on everything but they did agree on one thing - God ordained them to do what they were doing. I won't expand my thoughts on that much today because my brain is so scattered it would be like reading a James Joyce novel. I do encourage everyone to read Under God by TobyMac & Michael Tait. It will provide you with an easy read and a great resource to explain just who our founding fathers were and why they established this country.

I voted this morning before work but after going to Man2Man. We vote in Loachapoka...it's ok if you have to read it a couple times to get the pronunciation right. It's a small little town but it's pretty cool. We usually have to wait 5 minutes max to vote there but this morning it was over an hour from the time I got in line to the time I left. I think that's pretty cool. It's about time people stood up and made their voice heard.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous about this election. I feel like the soul of our nation hangs in the balance. I was filled with apprehension when I first got in line, but then it happened. I stopped, took a breath, listened to God, and prayed. I prayed for about an hour, nearly the whole time I was in line. I prayed for the election, for the candidates, for the voters, for people in line around me, for the soldier and his family that walked by headed to the back of the line, for our church, for prayer requests mentioned this morning, for my family, for anything and everything that was weighing on my heart. When I left after turning in my ballot and getting the "I Voted" sticker from the older gentlemen at the door I felt as though a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I left it all up to God. I'm still a little apprehensive about the election, but I'm not losing my mind. I know there's nothing else I can do but pray, and pray I will continue to do. My hope is in God. My faith is in God. My life is in His hands. He knows what we need and he will provide it for us, even if it isn't immediately apparent.

Oh yeah, I also picked up a nice lady, Tina, on my way to work today and gave her a ride a couple miles up the road in rural Macon County. It was totally a God thing. I had no choice but to stop when she waved at me; it was as if I literally couldn't help but stop. She thanked me profusely and we talked for the 3-4 minutes or so she was in the car. We didn't get in depth but it was apparent she's had a difficult life. She moved to Alabama in 1995 from Cleveland. Please pray for her that she would find what she needs, though I don't know what that form that might take. I didn't ask her if she was a Christian. She just said she had to go to the store this morning and was on her way back home and didn't have a ride. Hopefully I saved her a little energy and helped her smile a little bigger today. Those God things can totally take you out of your comfort zone but they are so awesome and so much bigger than we know.

Halloween

(A picture of our trunk from Cornerstone's Trunk or Treat and a picture of Jason and Toby with our little pumpkin)
I don't have a ton of time to post, mostly because I am watching the Auburn v. Ole Miss game. WAR EAGLE! But I wanted to first of all say "Happy Birthday!" to my dad (and a belated Happy Birthday to my little sister!). My dad was almost born on Halloween, but missed it by a day. Which is probably just as well. My point of this supposedly short blog is to say, what has happened to Halloween? When I was little it didn't matter what day Halloween fell on, you trick or treated and almost everyone on your street had a pumpkin out and had candy or some other treats for you. This year here in Auburn they changed Halloween (which was perfectly situated on a Friday) to a Thursday night so it didn't interfere with high school football. What? Are you kidding? Maybe I underestimated the power of football here in Auburn (ironic that I have to cut this short to watch football). My mom told me earlier this week that she wouldn't let us go trick or treating if we were little now. How sad that the evil in our world is ruining this little bit of innocent childhood fun. I love that churches now have "Trunk or Treats" which are a great way to have some Halloween fun in a safe, friendly, and non-scary environment but they are never on the actual Halloween day. I am not sure what my point is other than that I am sad how much our world has changed since I was little AND that I think trick or treating should not be moved from Halloween day (trunk or treats are the exception). I am interested in what the 2 or so people who read this may think. Do you agree in the moving of Halloween?

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.