Livin' it up & Luvin' life

Life has been a blast these last couple weeks. So much has happened... Turned over three years working as an RN in the Neonatal ICU and now looking to attending grad school next fall. Working with George Moss as his street team and promotions director. Went through the Song of Solomon Bible study and will now be a co-leader for the next study. Joined George's small group Bible study. New carpet in my house. Party at my house. Chillin' with friends at my house and everywhere else. Going to bed at 2am just about every night for the last week (except this weekend). Sleeping in till 10-11a. Definitely living up the life till I start grad school in the fall!!

My friends have been all off for Christmas break, so being able to chill with them the last week and a half has been a complete blast. Started out by having a huge party at my house with Zach, Jon, David, Amanda, Adam, Autumn, Alyssa, George, Juice, Joel, Rick, George, Erin & Beth! SO much fun! My house was so trashed by the time all was said and done ~ after pizza, pop, Murder in the Church, Hide'n'Seek, Nerf Airgun wars, party in a 10 by 10 room, Sardines, Guitar Hero, Soccer & Football outside, talking, more eating, talking, talking, talking! One of the best parties I have EVER had!!

PLUS my sister, Amanda, is home from Word of Life Bible College in Hungary where she's been the last three months... I've so missed her and it's been great hanging out with her as I've only been able to talk to her via Skype and Facebook. Hanging out with her in person as much as possible this last week has been AMAZING. Love you sista!!

I also met a friend of mine for the first time ever in person at the party at my house Saturday... It was so cool to hear his voice in person, on the phone Friday then in PERSON AT MY HOUSE!!! We have NEVER MET before except on Skype through Amanda. George is from Romania but working in Hungary at the same school my sister Amanda is attending. We randomly met through Skype. I thought I was talking to Amanda, but come to find out he was mistakenly logged in as her and didn't know she had still been logged in as he was fixing her computer. We instantly became friends and talked for about two hours on Skype, then we became Facebook friends, then God allowed us to meet in person for the first time at the party at my house. Total God-thing. This was his first time in the States and he stayed with friends of his who live literally 1.6 miles (that's for you George and that milk shake I still owe you) from my house. Then come to find out, I coached his friend's sister in volleyball. This world is only getting smaller the more I get to know more people. God is amazing. George and I were able to hang out together for three nights in a row - usually with my sister, Amanda, since she is good friends with him. It was fun to get to know George and hang out with him as I was his set of wheels for those three days (seems to be a theme for many of my friends :) ). God works in amazing ways. Just to think that three months ago we were just chatting on Skype never thinking we would actually meet face to face. We then found ourselves Christmas night sitting face to face one on one getting to know each other in person. After he went back to his friend's house, I went to bed that night just mind-boggled that this guy from the other side of the world just hung out with me all night and we only met on Skype three months ago... How often does that happen?

I have also found myself to become very good friends with George Moss as I am his street team and promotions director. I love it!! I find myself hanging out with George for at least one day a week whether we are in the studio ~ him recording his album - me capturing these moments on tape; checking out a venue for the CD release party, discussing promotions and street team stuff, being a sound board for each other on anything and everything in life, hitting up Bible study or challenging each other to a game of Blokus. ha ha... After Bible study one night, George and our friends from Bible study introduced me to Blokus at Applebees... SO much fun! Then George, Amanda, George (from Romania) and I challenged each other to Blokus in a coffee shop just the other night... Yes, it was two Amandas and two George's challenging each other in Blokus! How confusing is that? ;) ha ha... George and I both beat George (from Romania) and Amanda... ha ha! yes, George, we TIED :p

Another night of fun is planned for New Year's as we all hit up the New Year's Eve party with WaYfm... So many friends to celebrate the new year with!! Don't plan to sleep at all as several of my friends are staying the night at my place. Sledding at 3am sounds like a blast doesn't it? haha ... sleep? what's that? who needs it??

God is AMAZING!! I LOVE MY FRIENDS...

Three George's, two Amandas :)
Amanda, George, Amanda
Amanda, Amanda, George
Amanda, Autumn
Beth, Alyssa, Amanda
Amanda, Amanda
Amanda, Zach

All I Really Want For Christmas

One my dreams someday... to adopt. My dream has always been China, but I'm open to where God leads. Some day when Mr. Right comes aknockin' I know it will happen. I keep saying, if I'm not married by 30, I'm adopting my girls from China - except China will not allow singles to adopt anymore. Therefore, I may be looking to Korea as their kids are just as cute ...or any country God has in mind. I'm open and willing to go where He leads. This song has touched my heart since it came out... I created a slideshow of pics from Blossom Garden Orphanage, the home for disabled and home for troubled boys and set it to this song by Steven Curtis Chapman, All I Really Want For Christmas. All three of those places are located near Montego Bay, Jamaica, which is where the WaYfm mission team served this past summer (of which I was very much apart of).

Blokus Addicts

You play it once and you are instantly an addict. I found myself playing tonight online versus a guy from Montreal. Let's just say he whooped me...

George introduced me to Blokus last week. I think he had been introduced to it by Greg a couple weeks prior and has been playing online since... therefore learning all the strategies so he could beat us all!

Anyway, last Tuesday after Bible study five of us headed to Applebees, Blokus in hand. Yes, we played Blokus in Applebees while enjoying our half price appetizers :) I had never played before and neither had Matt or Anthony. We played from 10:30p- 11:55p. Matt and Anthony rotated through while George, Liz and I were not giving up our spots. I was hooked after game one. It gets brutal! As Liz likes to say... friendships can be ruined over this game! I tend to agree that that could happen if played often enough... ha ha. (But I hope your friendships are deeper than that!)

It had been a week since I played last and I had been wanting to play more with no means to! After Bible study last night, George, Liz, Matt and I headed over to George's place with Blokus in hand! Woohoo!! (We had to beg and plead Joey - our fearless leader's son - to let us borrow it again. Thanks, Joey!!) Once at George's, a rousing game of Blokus was at hand. Next thing we know, Jason and Josh show up ready to chill out w/ us. Then Brad came as well as Anthony! Good times :) After two games of Blokus, Josh was intrigued enough to join. He had never played before but after game one, was hooked :)

As I said, all it takes is one game and you're addict. Tonight, I found myself to be fairly bored (as my house is torn apart and TV unplugged in anticipation for my new carpet to be laid in the morning!!), and remembered Blokus can be played online and globally! Yeah!! Sadly though, I lost to a Canadian... He did tell me he had been playing for two months now whereas I've only played on a board for a week. The game he had me play was a board that was the shape of a hexagon (vs. a square) and we each played two colors instead of one. I had never played that way before and therefore lost miserably. But you can be sure I'll be getting more practice so I can beat George (not tie, BEAT!) next time we play!! Plus, I gotta keep up with Josh as I can about imagine he had his entire office to playing online today :)

Any other Blokus addicts out there??

5 friends, 4 morning shows, 4 radio stations.

A dilemma to say the least... Who do you listen to? What is YOUR favorite radio station?? Honestly, my personal favorite station is 88.3/89.9 WaYfm that can also be heard online at WaY.fm. BUT in the morning, I have 5 good friends on 4 different radio stations each with their own morning show. It used to only be 2 morning shows I had to decide between - WCSG & WaYfm. It has now DOUBLED to FOUR... 89.3 WGNB, 89.9 WaYfm, 91.3 WCSG and STAR 105.7. My very good friend Jack Haveman is on 89.3, my good friend, Rich Anderson is on 89.9, my friend, John Balyo is on 91.3 and my friends, Tommy and Brook are now on Star 105.7. A good dilemma to have I must say as you can never have too many friends. This AM, I found myself flipping through all four stations trying to catch them all on their breaks... Fortunately three of the stations are close to each other on the dial, but there is one outlier that took some serious dialing.

Honestly, I mainly enjoy listening to them talk instead of listening to the music. Much more entertaining. In fact, I wish they did more talking in the morning AND that they'd all synchronize it so I could flip from one station to the next so that as one ended his break, I could flip to the next and catch that break from the start, then go to the next, then the next... There's an idea! Then I could set my Sony digital tuner to all four stations and flip from one to the next to the next to the next and not miss a thing!

Fortunately for the afternoons and evenings, I only have to tune in to WaYfm for my friends... Mike Couchman, George Moss and DJ Mystery. Makes my listening decision SO much easier.

Who do you enjoy listening to? Does anyone else share my dilemma? Talk to me! Love to hear from ya!

In the Waiting that leads to the ACTION

Have you ever felt as though you are in a waiting period where it seems as though nothing is currently happening? Then bam! Everything hits, things start happening and life gets exciting again! I have recently experienced this. There were a couple weeks that it just felt like I took a break from life. I didn't pick up extra at work. I didn't do much around the house. I just chilled and thought. God slowed me down to the point where I realize that I wasn't spending enough time with Him... Seeking His direction in life and looking to Him for wisdom, insight and guidance in life. In that waiting, I really started to seek Him. As soon as I started looking to Him, the waiting STOPPED, and life took off again! God took me out of the waiting period to ACTION!

God never ceases to amaze me. It was tough going through that waiting period as I was starting to get depressed and wondering what God was doing in my life. But you know what? That was when I started to seek God again. It forced me to get down on my knees to search for His will. I really started to read the Bible and the book I've been reading lately, David, A Man of Passion & Destiny by Chuck Swindoll. Looking for God's teaching to challenge me to grow spiritually and to deepen my relationship with Him. It worked and I love it! This waiting period also forced me to start journaling again. That is how I pray and talk to my Father in Heaven ~ I journal. I had stopped for a while b/c there was one thing going on in my life that I had hoped would come to fruition that I had been journaling about asking God for guidance and wisdom ~ to which God said no to. I was so discouraged that I stopped journaling. I just couldn't do it anymore. I didn't turn my back on God, but I stopped deeply talking to Him. Also when I left the radio stations and was going off in an entirely new direction ~ I didn't deeply seek God's will. I knew He was leading me away from the stations and back to school but I was flying by the seat of my pants. Therefore, God decided it was time to put me in the waiting period. He put my life completely on hold and said, "Stop. Come back to me. I love you and know what's best for you. Stop trying to go your own way. I know what's best. Seek ME first for guidance, insight and wisdom. Don't think you know what's best or think you know what I'm telling you as you really don't know until you LISTEN to Me. The only way you can listen to me is if you stop and seek Me. I will give you the answer, the wisdom, the insight, the guidance, and ultimately the desires of your heart. Only I can do that. Seek Me."

I did and life has become SO much clearer now. I feel as though I have a clearer understanding of God's will for my life. I think I have finally decided on what school to attend for grad school. I'm at peace about it even though I have a lot of work ahead of me to accomplish that goal. I would appreciate your prayers for me in this for I have to take the GRE to get into grad school. And the school I have chosen - all online courses but will have to travel to the school four to six times - is very expensive. I will be saving like a madwoman over the next 10 or so months before starting school next fall so I can avoid as much debt as possible!

So what school am I looking at to attend? Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. They are a very good school and have a strong online program that will allow me to study from home. I will have to travel down there four to six times for five-day block classes over the course of a year to year and a half. I am really looking forward to actually going down there as I have never been to Nashville but hear it is a fun city to visit. Plus I have several friends who have been there that can give me the low down about where to go and what to do while I'm not studying or attending class :) The rest of the program will allow me to "attend" class online as well as do my residency in my NICU here at home. (I'm going for my masters to become a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner.) Our nursery is a level three nursery and we are a teaching hospital - which is the same as Vanderbilt. Plus we are one of the biggest Neonatal ICU's in the country as we have anywhere from 70-100+ babies at any given moment, and I will definitely get the experience I need to become the best NNP possible. My biggest hurdle is taking the GRE as this school requires it. I have started studying for it and it is a mountain to climb. A bit intimidating but I'm driven and determined to conquer this mountain. Please pray for me. It's a bit overwhelming, but doable. I'll be studying for about six weeks or so - whatever it takes to feel somewhat comfortable to sit down and take the test.

Honestly, I'm looking forward to going back to school to learn more about the neonate - in depth learning about the smallest patient you will ever see or care for. ...Imagine a baby where his length extends from the tip of your fingers to just outside the palm of your hand. Imagine a head that you can almost wrap your entire hand around. Imagine a foot that is the size of the pad of your thumb. Imagine a leg that is the length of your middle finger. Imagine a heart that is slightly smaller than a quarter - imagine having to perform surgery on that heart. Now imagine being the mom or dad of someone so small, so fragile. Now imagine being the nurse, the doctor, the nurse practitioner, the respiratory therapist responsible for the care of someone so small in this battle for life. They don't all start out that small... Some start out at three to four pounds or even term size and become really sick that require significant care. But no matter their size, they baffle you at their fight for survival. They surprise you when they make it through when all seems lost. And they make you proud when they come back to visit walking and talking, making your day knowing you made a big difference in their little lives...