happy halloween!

best. halloween. ever. 

I love working on Halloween. It's great. You get to dress up, you get to take care of little kiddos who are dressed up. People bring in homemade chili. All the little boys are dressed like toy story characters. When you leave the peds unit to walk anywhere else in the hospital everyone stares at you because you are an adult dressed like Minnie Mouse. Its great. 

Here is a little list of my favorite things about today:

1. my only patient (that's right...we only had 7 kids on the floor so I got to come home early) dressed up as Woody from Toy Story. Precious.

2. Heather was a pirate and I heard her yell "Arrrr" all day, even when I was in the back hallway and she was in the front. 

3. Heather told pirate jokes all day.

4. Homemade chili for everyone. It was great. 

5. I helped a family carry their stuff to their car when I sent them home...and on my way back to the hospital I passed a bunch of people sitting in the clinic that just watched as I awkwardly walked by as Minnie Mouse. It's fine. 

6. I must have seen 3 kids dressed as Buzz Lightyear.

7. Carleigh was there volunteering!! She is a junior at TC and in the small group Megan and I lead in the mornings :)

8. The kids trick-or-treated around the unit. It was too cute. If it weren't for HIPAA laws, I'd have taken pictures. 

9. Walking in as the doctors were rounding on my kid in the morning, and every one of them on the team did a double take when I walked in. They were just jealous they weren't Minnie Mouse. 

10. Julie was working today, but in PICU, so she didn't get to wear her Snow White costume, but I saw it in the break room with a bag full of stuffed dwarves. It would have been great. 

11. Maureen didn't have pockets on her costume, so carried around a ziplock bag full of all the things she needed. 

12. Mary dressed up as a nurse. I like her a lot. 

That's all I have for you :) I am going to go enjoy this afternoon off and head to church and team hangout/dinner! 

Happy Halloween friends!

campaigners 10/24

[No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him]

1 John 3:6

I just read this in 1 John, which is interesting because it ties perfectly with what we talked about at campaigners with the TC students last night. 

We read through Luke 7:36-50, the story of the sinful woman anointing Jesus. One of the things that stood out in discussion was the authenticity of her gratefulness towards him. She had been forgiven much, so she loved much [v.41-50]. We talked about how if we experience the love and grace of God in such a real way as this, we can't help but love. I bet she didn't go home and fall back into her sinful patterns. 

A real life-changing encounter with Christ should change how we live. 

This doesn't mean we all the sudden don't sin, or don't struggle with sin. That is impossible. It does mean that we don't deliberately keep on sinning because we know we will receive grace. [Romans 6]

True grace received in a heart that has been affected by His love desires to live differently...to live in a way pleasing to Him. It's the difference between cheap grace and costly grace. [deitrich bonhoeffer writes about this in the first chapter of the cost of discipleship...read it, it's awesome]

Randi drew a picture of an iceburg with only the tip sticking out of the water. She said how the Lord only reveals a little of the sin in our lives at a time. Can you imagine how overwhelming to see clearly the whole of it? We'd feel too defeated to even think we could overcome. He gives us only glimpses at a time, so we can submit it to Him and allow Him to work in us with His perfect timing and grace. 

We should not keep on sinning so as to receive more grace, we need more grace anyway for all the un-dealt with sin that is already there. 

I love this 1 John verse. It is hard in a good way. It makes me wonder about disobedience in my life and how when I act in defiance of Him, I'm living as if I haven't seen or known him. That breaks my heart. 

I want to live continually aware of the grace and love I have received, to live a life pouring thankfulness out, just like the sinful woman in Luke 7.

south carolina

This past weekend I headed down to Greenville SC with 3 friends [Jen, Rachel, and Cory] to visit our wonderful friend Shannon, who moved away from KY over a year ago. 

I hate that Shan is not living in the same house as me anymore, but I love that she lives in such a fun and beautiful city to visit. We all left Thursday night and got to SC after 1 am. We are far too old for that. :)

The weekend was full of adventuring and exploring. My favorite was downtown Greenville. Always is. It is so pretty there. The weather was perfect. 

I got to take pictures of pretty things, but the best part was just hanging out, relaxing, and catching up with Shannon.

Here are all of us girls. The other 4 girls all went to high school together, I met them all our freshman year of college [bonus friend]. They are great. We celebrated Shannon's upcoming birthday as well as Rachel's tiny lime-sized baby growing in her belly.

There is a big brick outdoor pavilion by the river downtown, and we noticed it was set up for a wedding reception, so we took a peek in and maybe stole some pictures of how pretty it was, and just sat on the nearby lawn as the band started playing and the guests and wedding party arrived. 

Our night ended at a little Italian restaurant we all love, some frozen yogurt [where we saw some Biggest Loser contestants from this past season], and hanging out at Shannon's apartment. Perfect. 

Shannon, I hated driving away from you this morning! You & A need to come right back here to Lex asap! :) Thank you for letting your friends take over your apartment and for showing us around your beautiful city! I like you a lot. 

[for the rest of the weekend photos, click here]

2 posts in one day?!

Yesterday while I was in NKY I went up to Crossroads in Cincy because I heard they were doing a prayer experience thing this week. I didn't know a whole lot about it, but heard it would be awesome, so decided to stop by. 

It was amazing. I highly recommend stopping by if you're in the area before Sunday. [not sure how long it's running for]. I just walked into the lobby and up to the desk, they gave me headphones and a little box with buttons on it. You walk through 8 different rooms where you can listen to different things, and just process and pray through each room.

The things that I loved the most were:

1. the entitlement room-- 

there was a chair up on a platform and pieces of paper to write on. the prompting for that room talked about the things we think we're entitled to. we tend to act like we sit on the throne of our lives, so it was a good reminder that I don't deserve any of it. that I have Christ, and He is all I need, and He is the one on the throne. 

2. the receiving room-- 

one room had a bunch of illuminated words written on the ceiling. the prompting talked about how we have none of these things on our own, that they all come from Christ. you had the chance to stand under each of the words, asking God to pour those things out to you. it's cool to think things like love and joy and peace and patience (galatians basically), come perfectly (and only) from God. its easy to think we possess those things on our own, but we don't. 

3. surrender room-- 

it's so easy to hold on to things, and be grasping for the things we want, the things we think we need. the plans and hopes we have for our lives. what we really need is more of Him. it's funny how much it hurts to think of surrender sometimes, but in light of His perfect love and sufficiency to meet our every need, why wouldn't we surrender everything to gain Him? even if something seems good, if it's not from Him, I don't want anything to do with it. I wish I remembered that more consistently. 

overall, I just left content and thankful. He really is good. His heart for us is perfect love, and we don't deserve any of it. He is God of the Universe and decided to bless me richly with His presence yesterday. I am so undeserving. 

DIY minnie mouse skirt

Halloween is almost here...you know what that means? Well, this year it means dressing up for work. I love that I have a job where you can come dressed up on Halloween. I am hoping all the kiddos dress up too. 

So I decided to be Minnie Mouse. Problem being that all adult costumes are super inappropriate, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I mean, I have a sewing machine and can make an apron, right?

Turns out the Minnie Mouse skirt was super easy to make. Mind you, I did not take the time to measure or iron anything as I went, I just kind of hoped it would turn out ok. It did. More planning of where the pleats went would have made it easier to add pockets to it (for work), and probably made the button closure in the back a little neater, but hey, it's going to be worn one day a year. No big deal :)

I started out by wrapping a piece of elastic around my waist where I wanted the skirt to sit. I then made pleats along the whole top of my fabric (no measuring, just cut the excess off when it reached the end of where the elastic was). 

After the entire top was pinned in pleats, I just sewed straight across the top with a loose stitch to hold it in place. 

I then pinned the elastic to the outside top of the skirt and sewed it on (normal size stitch). Note to readers: My plan was to just have a closed skirt since elastic is stretchy...definitely loses its stretch when you sew along the entire length...fail. 

I folded in the open part of the back and sewed along the edge for a clean line and then sewed that to the other open side to close the skirt. I left about a hand-length open so the skirt can actually be put on. 

I had to sew a button in at the top, which looks super messy, but what can you do? 

[inside of skirt]

[outside from the back]

 

When that was done, I just hemmed the bottom up to be how long I wanted it! Super easy. 

Anyway..here is the final product [without pockets]. The whole thing took under an hour and about $6. Deal. 

Just pair with black leggings, a black shirt, pearls, and minnie mouse ears! That's my plan at least :)

Happy Halloween Crafting!!

sass

well. today i fixed the wii fit! around 80-ish days ago, it stopped picking up the remote, so i stopped using it. i googled the problem yesterday and saw someone say to unplug the wii and plug it back in. 

that easy? apparantly. it was fixed. and what do i get from the wii fit? sass. i don't appreciate the attitude, wii fit. 

also, the "personal trainers" seem to have got hair cuts. weird. the guy who "fills in" for the girl every once in a while no longer has a rat tail [good thing] and the girl trainer wears her hair down now. how did this happen? 

either way, i'm glad to have the wii fit back. i got to hula hoop today, it's been too long. how many you ask? 303! only about 7 or so short of my record. 

now i'm off to nky for the day! i hope you all have a great, sass-free day :)

practicing presence

I found myself in the classics section of Lifeway again the other day. It's my favorite spot. There are books like E.M. Bounds Power through Prayer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Cost of Discipleship, The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, God Smuggler by Brother Andrew, Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis, and the entire works of C.S. Lewis. Who wouldn't love that shelf?

There are still a good amount of books that I haven't read yet on that shelf, so when I visit it, I always look for what I want to read next. This time brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God jumped out at me. I'd heard good things about it, and with a title like that I couldn't resist. [not to mention it was $6]

I feel like when God is showing me something, it is usually something that lingers awhile. Lately His presence has been something that I've been noticing & learning about over and over. 

I by no means live out of the awareness of His presence continuously throughout the day, but lately He's  been showing me glimpses of what that looks like. Which, I've found highlights the times where I'm not living from his presence, making it more noticeable. 

Anyway, I read brother Lawrence's book today [it's only 95 small pages long]. I highly recommend it. His life was literally lived out with God daily. Minute by minute. I want that closeness with God. I want to pray continually. I want my everyday thoughts to be turned into conversation with the Lord. I want my eyes taken off of myself and my desires. That is no place for my focus to be. 

So I feel encouraged by the example of faith that brother Lawrence set. It makes me see that communion with God like that is attainable through surrender. I'll leave you with some quotes from the book. I hope this is as encouraging to you as it was to me :)

"My preference is to retire with Him to the deepest part of my soul as often as possible. When I am with Him there, nothing frightens me, but the slightest diversion away from Him is painful to me"

"Even suffering will be easier when we are with Him, but without Him, even the greatest pleasures will be joyless"

[spoken of brother Lawrence]"He was a citizen of heaven, not concerned with things on earth"

"Brother Lawrence's only means of going to God was to do everything for the love of Him. He was thus indifferent about what he did. All that mattered was that he did it for God. It was He, and not the activity, that he considered. He knew that the more the thing he did was opposed to his natural inclination, the greater was the merit of his love in offering to God. He knew that the pettiness of the deed would not diminish the worth of his offering, because God- needing nothing- considers in our works only the love that accompanies them"

randi :)

Turns out October is full of my friend's birthdays!

Today was Randi's 23rd birthday! Randi is my friend, roommate, and teammate! I am one lucky girl. Really, I am so incredibly blessed by her. She is super encouraging and always available to talk or make me laugh. I'm pretty sure I laugh so hard I can't breathe daily because of her. 

Sometimes she walks in the front door wearing a fake mustache. 

But, what better a way to celebrate Randi than by photos? Almost all of my Randi photos are incredibly great, so this was hard, but I'll share just a few :)

This last one is the girl side of our little family of TC leaders. We've been leading together for the past 4 years! I am so incredibly thankful for them and blessed to be serving our Lord alongside of them. 

Randi, I hope your birthday was wonderful! I've loved spending the day with you, and I love you a lot :)

loved today.

today was great.

i got to sit around with my roommates and laugh.

i ate lunch with jen jen and miss karen. it was great. 

i got to wear boots. it feels like fall. the leaves were changing everywhere.

i drove around lexington with my windows down looking for pretty leaves to photograph, walked under a lot of trees with leaves falling everywhere. perfect.

i made dinner with the windows open and a breeze coming in, playing drew and ellie holcomb.  and i was wearing an apron. i love aprons.

my brother came over to eat with me! 

after tomorrow i am off for 11 days. so awesome. :)

anyone want to go see drew & ellie in Nashville on Sunday?! i'd be in :)

some things:)

1.

At 7:05 this morning, as I was getting report on my patients, I thought to myself I am really happy to be here. I'm not being sarcastic. I was really happy to be doing what I love. Days like this are a blessing. 

2.

I am FINALLY reading The Chronicles of Narnia. Thanks to Randi's persistance. I'm loving The Magician's Nephew. Loving it. C.S. Lewis is awesome. 

3.

Today I had a paper cut on my finger. I use hand sanitizer at work roughly every 5 minutes. Not fun.

4.

I've felt so blessed by my roommates lately. I'm pretty sure my stomach hurts from laughing every time the 3 of us are together. Every time. It may or may not have to do with a old moldy cabbage patch doll half the time...but they are just wonderful. 

5.

My boys have made it past the first round of playoffs. That's right friends, it's October. The best month for so many reasons...one of those being MLB playoffs and the World Series. I just love those Yankees. Love them. How can you not love a team with Andy Pettite pitching? Try to answer that one. [not really, I'm imagining the repercussions of that statement already]

6.

Marcel the shell. If you haven't seen this video, watch it. Maybe twice. He grows on you. 

7.

Lastly, but by far the best from this little list....RACHEL IS PREGNANT!!! Congrats on little baby Ridd! I can not wait to craft my little heart out for that tiny baby. What a blessing that baby is in for with parents like Rach and Eric! Lucky kid :)

Jaime Lynne's Seniors-- Final Cut

Jaime's Seniors are finished and up! 

I narrowed it to my favorites and put them in a Picasa album. Jaime has different favorites, but I'll let her make a fb album with those after she gets them :)

Here is a preview...Click here to see my final cut. 

She was so much fun to shoot!  The guitar pictures were great, because she just played and sang and I got to listen while I snapped away. A couple songs she played were Jon Foreman Behind Your Eyes, and Ryan Long Lay my burdens down. 

Enjoy:)

a birthday princess :)

Today is Jen Jen's Birthday!! She is 25! I will tell you a story with pictures to celebrate the occasion :)

 I met Jen in college a little over 6 years ago. We became instant friends because our names were Jenna, we have brown hair, and our moms names are Karen. Why wouldn't we be friends?! Look how little we all were!

We went on all kinds of adventures. One day Jen wore her pizza costume in to pick up a pizza we ordered. Nobody working smiled. Weirdest thing ever. 

We make such pretty faces together. The truth is, we, until recently, have not had any normal pictures together until probably a couple years ago. Here is one from Jade & Sean's wedding :) [above]

A lot of our adventures, it turns out, were dressed up for halloween. This night has many great stories. How fun are we?! Sometimes we would blast Meatloaf's "I'd do anything for love" in the car and roll the windows down at stoplights.

One day we traveled all night long after being bridesmaids to go on Summer Staff at windy gap together. It was great. We took pictures like this. 

and this :) 

There are just so many great things about Jen. We could be here all day. 

But really, I am so blessed to have a friend like Jen in my life. She is such a godly woman and so fun to be around. Check out her blog here if you get a chance :)

Happy Birthday Jen!! I hope you get to be a princess all day today! :)