This and that

A little randomness because we all have our talents, and that is definitely one of mine.

1) Well, I lived to tell about Crazy Beach Extravaganza, 2007. It was definitely an experience to behold. We had tons of fun in the sun accompanied by non-stop protection from drowning, a continuous ‘Cars’ loop playing on the TV, and plenty of tears (theirs and a few of my own). Ashley and I did not get the memo that a family beach trip with toddlers was supposed to be a relaxing time, so we spent the majority of the week figuring out clever ways to keep the boys entertained and alive. In the end, I did not vow to never have children, but I did come to terms with the fact that even if I was married, I am not ready for babes of my own at this point. For now I will stick with my little boys who are way above average in the cuteness department—-the ones I can kiss goodbye at the end of the night (or week at the beach) and get in my car and drive home. Indeed, when I got in my car childless and tanned, my happiness could not be measured.

2) If you are reading this, then you are visiting my pretty new blog design! I would like to say that the first thing I did upon returning home was unload, upack, and organize. I would also like to say that I am a singer and a brain surgeon. But, I have a good grasp on my limitations as a person and they definitely include (among many others) singing, medical procedures, and organizational tendancies. So, in lieu of doing anything productive when I walked in the door from my trip, I sat down at the computer to check my email. Three hours later, I had a brand new blog design! The whole thing is really a blur. But, in the end I came out with this lovely page, and I am very happy.

And I really feel like today is the day I will unpack the suitcase.

3) Looking at my phone yesterday and realizing it was JULY 1 sent me into an unexpected panic. I think it is because now I can use the phrase, “I go back to The Gradschool next month.” Oh, the sadness of that sentence. Realizing that it is now July brings up a whole list of to-do’s that need to be checked off in order to be ready for the Fall.

Boo boo boo.

That is just my very mature and personal opinion, of course. And really, I am excited to go back to Gradville…I am just not ready to dive back into the wonderful world of learning at the present time.

4) During the two beach trips with the boys, there has been a slot of time each day that I have absolutely coveted…naptime. I have strong emotional ties to naptime for 2 reasons. The first reason is because NOT having a nap made for complete craziness in the head. And the boys were even worse. In fact, the first time we allowed Little Boy (4) to skip his nap, this is what ensued around 5:00 that night when I was trying to bathe him so we could go out to eat…

LB (already in tears because he did not want to take a bath in the first place): DON’T LOOK AT ME!

Me (trying to figure out how not to look at him while bathing him): Baby, I KNOW you don’t want to take a bath, but LOOK! we can do it SO fast and get right out out of this stinky tub, and THEN we are going to go to the pier, and OH! they have a playground there…(talking loudly over the uncontrollable sobbing)…um….do you want some candy!? I’ll give you candy!! Ok, let’s wash the soap out of your hair and then we’ll get the candy!

LB: IT’S IN MY EYES! MY EYES!

I rush to pour clean water from the faucet over the poor lad’s face and eyes (which, by the way, really do not have soap in them).

LB: NO! NOT THAT WATER! DON’T USE THAT WATER (sob! sob! sob!). USE THE WATER RIGHT HERE! (reaches out, eyes closed like a blind man, and touches the bath water).

Me (thinking that is odd since the bath water is laden with soap, but bound and determined to GET THIS DONE): Ok, here we go, here is the water!

LB (blinking eyes open): NO, NOT THAT WATER! 

(I believe this was the exact moment I realized I was not ready for children).

So, If you are confused and stressed out from that conversation with the exhausted 4 year-old, then you now realize why naptime was MANDATORY from that day forward.

The second reason (yes, still on this subject, and actually not even to the main point yet) I held naptime so close to my heart was because it was my reading time. I would get the little rugrats to sleep, sit down on the couch with a diet coke and some lunch, and spend the next 2 hours reading in heavenly peace.

Favorite Books of the Summer so far:

1) The Last Summer (of You & Me) by Ann Brashares

2) Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner

5) I mentioned in a previous post that I am going to be a bridesmaid for a very dear friend that is getting married next June. Well, seeing as we have already established that it is July, that means there is less than one year until their wedding and my debut as a bridesmaid. Girls, we all know what this means…the dreaded bridesmaid dress. The thing is, I am totally not worried about the dress itself because my beautiful and stylish friend, Brittany the Bride, is sure to have some knockout dresses. She’s cute like that. In fact, I am sure the whole wedding will be an affair to remember due to it’s class and elegance.

My concern is ME…in the sure-to-be faboulous dress. Time to get into shape, my friends. You heard it here first.

I like to call this mission: Hot Bridesmaid, 2008. Stay tuned.

*****

Ok, well, I think that is about all the randomness one blog entry can take. Time to go start marking items off the to-do list. I think I’ll start with the unpacking.   

Here we go again

Back in January I got a frantic message from the mama of My Boys asking me to call her back AS SOON as I got her message because she had something VERY important she needed to ask me. Those little boys definitely get the need for the drama honest. So anyway, being the avid caller-backer that I am, I went downstairs to get a Diet Coke and a snack.

First things first.

Once I returned, I grabbed my cell phone and called her back. By this time, I was intrigued to know more about the VERY important matter at hand. My anticipation grew until she answered the phone and we embarked on a very exciting conversation that ended with plans for A BEACH TRIP! WE’RE GOING TO THE BEACH! (emphasis mine).

So the beach trip, which includes their whole family (totalling 16 people, 7 of which are children I will be partially responsible for) was written in the planner for the last week of June. And I won’t lie, I drew a smiley face beside it. And a small beach scene.

So all these months have passed and tomorrow is the big day. Crazy Beach Extravaganza, 2007. And while I am excited about this trip, I am not naive to think it is going to be a relaxing week of sleeping in and sun and reading my book with my toes in the sand while the children play quietly. Those dreams were shattered last year during Crazy Beach Extravaganza, 2006. Last year, Ashley (Baby Mama) called on Monday (I had planned to drive down Thursday to babysit all the kids the last night so the adults could have a child-free evening) and said, “Well hey there, Miss Jenna…what are you up to?”

Babysitter Code: Can you bump your arrival time up a 3-4 days? The children have gone crazy and and we need you…NOW. Bring wine.

So, while I know that this week isn’t going to be like going to the beach with my own family–where the youngest person is 23, and that person is me–I am up for the challenge. The boys are at the cutest ages and make everything so funny. “Oh my gosh, Jen Jen! Seagallies!” Plus, we are old pros since we already have one beach trip under belts (or bathing suit cover ups, as the case may be).

By next week at this time I am sure I will be pulling my hair out and vowing not to have children (kidding, Mama, kidding), but as for now, let the games begin! Ya’ll have a great week

Vital lesson from college

I failed to mention in my last post as I lavished in my bridesmaidness, that bride-to-be Bri was actually in town visiting this week. You see, she is marrying one of my friends from high school who has now become one of my best friends from college.

ALERT TO ALL COLLEGE GIRLS: Make sure at least one of your best friends dates and marries someone from your hometown.

Why you ask? Because, if you go to college in your hometown and “meet your bridesmaids,” it is a HUGE added bonus if any or all of them become eternally attached to someone who is deeply rooted in aforementioned hometown. Indeed, I am so thankful and lucky that B met and fell in love with this amazing guy because 1) E. is indeed amazing and entirely hilarious and 2) she will forever be tied to (and may potentially reside in) my hometown.

And if being able to hang out with B and E wasn’t exciting enough, Lin was also in town this week. She is not engaged to a hometown boy, but she does have strong emotional ties to a very good hair stylist whom she could not part with after we graduated. We all know that finding a good hairdresser wins a silver medal in the race to someone’s heart (after finding a soul-mate, of course).

So we had a mini one-year college reunion. It was a great week filled with eating, movies, and Catchphrase tournaments. And, if THAT wasn’t enough to put someone over the edge with happiness, I also got a very cute pair of sunglasses from Goody’s that were only $6.50.

Hope your week was equally as sweet!

Always a scripture reader

I once read a quote that said something along the lines of “you don’t go to college to meet your husband, you go to meet your bridesmaids.” I always remembered that saying, even though I feel sure that it was written by some lonely single girl who was boyfriend-less in college and was trying to make herself feel better. Still, I always admired her because at least she was looking on the bright side.

Another reason I liked that quote was because for me, it could not have been more true. I went all through those fun college days as single as a one dollar bill. And despite the fact that a boyfriend/husband was not to appear during those years of my life, I did “meet my bridesmaids” as that annonymous sage had so encouragingly proclaimed. Indeed, I was eternally blessed by the friendships I made in college, and hopefully one day I will be able to employ those lovely ladies to stand by me on what is sure to be the best day ever. I am not sure when this day will occur and could add my own line to the quote saying, “you also don’t go to your first year of grad school to meet your husband, you go to meet one more person to add to the bridesmaid list.”

But, to me, that just doesn’t flow quite as well or have the same emotional punch as the preceding part of the quote.

I bring up bridesmaids because even though I am not quite there yet, Brittany, one of my best friends from college, has recently asked me to be in HER wedding. Even typing that now sends me into a state of excitement that makes me want to reprise my “I’m gonna be a bridesmaid, I’m gonna be a bridesmaid” song I wrote the night she asked me.

The one I performed for my mama in which she told me she was going to call me BM for short if I kept it up.

ANYway, to say that I was excited and deeply touched by her invitation would be a huge understatement. I adore this girl and most of my funniest memories are with her. We were friends, roommates, and partners in crime for a huge chuck of college life, and something tells me we’ll always get into trouble together. And if I had to choose two people who epitimized genuine, good, and funny people, she would most definitely be one of them–and her fiance would most certainly be the other. I am telling you…quality people.

I think what makes this so special for me is two-fold. Firstly, even though we are great friends and she will most certainly stand with me on That Day in the future, Bri is one of those people who has deep and lasting relationships with a lot of people. She has a very close core group of friends from high school as well as a solid group of college friends whom she is very close to. Not to mention two sisters and a soon to be sister-in-law. Sufficed to say, the girl’s got people, and as much as I am sure she would love to have 17-20 bridesmaids (literally that is how many names she has been throwing around), it’s just not feasible if she wants to also, you know, invite family and other friends to the wedding. Secondly, I have never been a bridesmaid before. I have participated in some close friends’ wedding by reading scripture (which I loved doing), but those particular wedding parties were small and comprised mostly of family. Plus, most of my really close friends have yet to tie the knot.

So, while most girls are crying “always a bridesmaid, never a bride,” I’ve just been thinking to myself, “always a scripture reader, never a bridesmaid.”

All this might explain why I burst into tears just upon hearing her say, “JT, I have something to ask you.” It was a sweet, semi-embarrassing moment as I screamed yes into the phone. All the while listening to her laugh as I am sure she started rethinking the whole decision when she suddenly envisioned all the stories I could tell on her in my bridesmaid speech.

And it goes without saying that I cannot wait to start preparing it. I am sure there will be a repeat of tears, as well as my bridesmaid song.

Jenna: True Bloggywood Story

I saw from Boomama and Big Mama that there is a fun blogging questionnaire from Chilihead flying around this little blogtown, and I thought, as a new bloggy gal, I would give it a try.

How did you start blogging?
I have actually started blogging twice. It all began once upon a time in May 2005 when I went to work as a camp counselor at a children’s home for the summer. It was a total God thing that I was even there, and it was a great and life-changing time in my life. My time there with those kids gave me truckloads full of memories and lessons, and He even threw in several very funny and inspiring co-counselors to help me keep my sanity. It was definitely not all rainbows and ice cream cones since we were working with children who had been dealt really hard hands and were dealing with a lot issues that really were unfathomable in the way that you try not to, you know, fathom. Plus the staff was CRAZY (and not in the, “oh they are so crazy, I just love ‘em!” sort of way). But that is definitely a whole other post that probably will never be written because, seriously…CRAZY. Anyway, a couple of my new found friends kept talking about this weird blogging thing they did and kept encouraging me to start one. And by encouraging, I really mean bugging me about to no end.

So, my first attempt to blogging was underway. Surprisingly to me, I totally enjoyed it. It was such a great way to process and vent about all the goings-on of crazyland–and all that God was showing me in the midst of the chaos and in the eyes and hearts of those sweet babes. Yet, once I returned home and back to school for my senior year of college, the writing sort of gave way to all the happenings of Merrywood. I became busy with class and trying to plan my future. Not to mention all the TV we had to watch and roommate dinners we had to eat. My plate was sort of full (literally and figuratively).

Fast forward to that future I was planning, and there I was at The Gradschool in a whole new town with mostly all new people and a stack of books that needed to be read for class. So, I did what any great student would do, and I started playing on the computer. I somehow stumbled upon some blogs that were just so great, I was drawn back day after day. Blogs like In the Midst of It , Boomama, Big Mama and so many more that I found through clicking on all their links. I LOVED reading about their lives as mamas and all their funny accounts. I just related to so much that they said about life and God and laughed my way into wanting my own blog. So I thought about it…mulled it over in my mind as my daddy would say…and decided that I should give it a shot because I do love writing and making people laugh, why not give it a go?

It has been a slow process so far, but I really am enjoying the mess out of it.

Did you intend to be a blog w/a big following? If so, how did you go about it?

n/a

What do you hope to achieve or accomplish with your blog? Have you been successful? If not, do you have a plan to achieve those goals?

I think my main goal at this point is just to write. I really love so much about my life and all the crazy and amazing people that give it color, and just want to talk about it. I have never really been short on words or laughs, so I want to try and spill some of that onto this blog. I anticipate, just like with my Summer Blog, that it will be a way of processing my experiences at this stage in the game.

Plus, now that it is summer, my calendar is cleared of all that school nonsense, not to mention that there is hardly anything good on TV besides Food Network Star, Top Chef, and The Real World: Vegas Reunited. So I am looking to fill up some hours of the day between babysitting and lolligagging.

Has the focus of your blog changed since you started blogging? How?

Well, from the first attempt in 2005, the focus has changed only because I am no longer in the throws of the glamorous counselor life. But since the second attempt, my focus is holding steady at relaying all my deep experiences like keeping My Boys alive and planning to watch.

Not to mention, it really all started in like April and my first entry was just about 7 or 8 posts ago. Even a cameleon of a person would have a hard time changing that much since then, and I am more like a plant of a person who never really changes just keeps growing (again literally and figuratively).

What do you know now that you wish you’d known when you started?

I wish I had just jumped in sooner. Daddy tells this story about me when I was 4 and took swimming lessons. I made this HUGE stand against jumping off the diving board. I wanted no part of hurling myself into the great unknown, aka the deep end. He promised me he would tell the teacher not to make me because I am his little girl and he loves his Jenna Babe and when the baby wasn’t happy, nobody was happy. Sometimes the hardest part is just doing it. I knew this at 4, but what I didn’t know that morning of the meltdown was that later that day, that teacher would tell Daddy to sit down and be quiet because she was going to teach me to swim if it was the last thing she ever did. She was a joy of a woman really…very sweet and complying. So I jumped. And I actually did not drown and it all worked out well.

So to make a long, slightly-related story longer…I wish I hadn’t worried so much about the unknown. What would I say? Would anyone read it or care? Could I actually keep it up and it be as funny and fresh as all those blogs I love to read?

I guess the vote is still out on most of those questions, but I am having fun jumping in and swimming around.

Do you make money with your blog?
I think technically in the end I will loose money, as I am sure I will blog when I should be studying for the master’s degree I am paying for.

Does your immediate or extended family know about your blog? If so, do they read it? If not, why?

Actually, none of my real people are participating in the reading quite yet. I believe that this is mainly because no one knows about it. I am still waiting for the big reveal. I thought I would try it out, see how it went, and get a few posts under my belt. Then unleash the craziness and see how people like my parents who are just now coming alive in the world of email, yahoo.com, and ‘cut and paste’ will respond.

What two pieces of advice would you give to a new blogger?

I really have none at this point besides the very inspirational “jumping in” story above. But, personally, I will take any suggestions!

Well, that was very fun, I must say. Maybe in a few months, I will be a more experienced blogger of a girl a can revisit some of these questions. Until then, I hope you all have a great week!

“I wanna be to da beeaaachh”

Hopefully all of my posts will not be about my adventures in babysitting, but since my summer days usually consist of much time with My Boys, most of my stories and thoughts are geared towards things like juice and Baby Bop and shooting imaginary bears. When my mama just brought me a Diet Coke, I automatically told her “tank tu” like Little Boy does. She looked at me oddly, and I just smiled and thought to myself how that was really sad, but in a cute way.

Thankfully, I do not normally use baby phrases when addressing adults, but I just returned home from a 4-day babysitting weekend extravaganza at the beach and my brain is still reprogramming itself. The Diet Coke is helping, as we all know it is a powerful AND delicious beverage.

The trip went well and everyone came back alive, so in my eyes, that is a huge success. I recieved lots of hugs and snuggles and only a few “Jen Jen, you are mean” encounters. Life is hard when you are 4 and your babysitter won’t let you jump into the deep end of the pool all by yourself despite the fact that you can’t really swim.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Baby Einstein

Since returning home from The Gradschool, I have been a babysitting machine. I rested up last weekend and starting Monday, I was getting some much anticipated time with some cute and dirty little boys. On Monday afternoon, I picked up My Boys from daycare only to have Big Boy run over to me and proclaim, “Miss Jenna! You’re my favorite babysitter!” After I picked my heart up off the floor, I took BB and Little Boy home to build stuff and shoot stuff and make as much of a mess as humanly possible in record time.

LB is 20 months now, and my lands, that child is smart. Maybe it is just because I have been away from them for a while, but all of a sudden we are like having conversations. I have no other 20-monthers to compare the little man to, but I feel confident in my rating him as a Genius at this point. His favorite way to show me how high is IQ is includes going through a very long list of animals and subsequently demonstrating the sound that they make.

We’ve sent his application to Harvard already, we’re just waiting to hear back.

I am in awe of his sweet little baby mind and how quickly he has learned so much. On Monday, as I listened to LB quack, bark, and moo, I sat pondering how awesome God is to give us brains to naturally pick up so much information at such a young age.

As if on cue, Big Boy interrupted my thoughts to let me know that it takes a bit more than divine intervention to make baby boys as smart as ours.

B: Miss Jenna, see dat Little Boy? See how my brodder knows doz animals so perfectly?
J: Yes, buddy, I see that. He is soooo smart.
B: Yeah…(nodding matter-of-factly)…I taught him everything he knows.

Countdown to freedom

As I sit here trying to think of something to write about, I am at somewhat of a loss. It’s not because I am trying to be profound or funny or smart (definitely not smart), but at this moment, this world o’ mine is a tad dull.

And I mean that in the nicest way.

I am in my last week of my first year of graduate school. Basically this means I have about 8 days until I will be free. The papers, projects, and hours of classes are coming to a close. It’s bittersweet, without the bitter, if you know what I mean.

So the fact is, my days consist of waking up, going to class, daydreaming about my summer days with My Boys, the beach, and all the other summer gifts sent straight from Heaven like free time and family. And by the time I arrive home at night from watching TV at Meg’s…I mean, studying…I am fresh out of inspirational anything. I am just ready to live up the rest of this week here and head home for the summer. Oh, what a joyous sentence! I still can’t believe the year passed so quickly.

Once I get back to where a large part of my heart resides, I feel confident the stories will overflow. I can’t wait to write about my Daddy’s performance in his play. Or about all the “tee-ents” I am going to be building. Not to mention road trips and visits to some of my favorite people.

So, I hope what ever your next week or so holds, that it will be filled with love, laughter and funny stories from where your heart resides.

Merrywood Girls

My last year of college (aka last year) I lived in a house with a 5 other girls. We called it Merrywood, and though it was an old house, it was absolutely perfect for us. I also lived in it the year before with a different batch of girls totalling 4 in all, and when a couple of them graduated, my roommate Kara and I could not wait until the Fall when Lindsay and Bri (our other 2 best friends) were moving in. Then we threw in a couple other great girls because we’re sweet like that and because rent split 6 ways is like living for free.

I don’t really remember how we even found this little house the year before. It was one of those gifts you never see coming, but you just praise the good and mighty Lord in Heaven who dropped it in your path and whispered, “here you go sweet girls, have the time of your lives.” It was a memory-making warehouse perfectly suited for extremely loud and frequent laughter and the most random conversations you could ever think of having.

The house was one-story but still quite nice in size. It had a built-on “mother-in-law” suite in the back that was so large walking from one end to the other got me breathing hard. My best friend, Lindsay, and I shared that room. We would yell across the room at night as we lay in our beds and talk about everything and nothing, and laugh at just about anything. We still do that now–but not from our beds because we live in different towns and even I am not that loud.

My favorite feature of the house was the front porch and most importantly the swing and rocking chair that had residence there. Many a deep conversation was had on that porch. The kind of conversations you leave knowing that with each passing one your bond is forged deeper, you become a little bit closer to the God you share, and you grow up just a little bit more.

I know sometimes we look back on life and regret not making the best of the time we had with those we love. I am so thankful to say I have no regrets from our time at Merrywood. I feel like we took up every opportunity to enjoy one another–even in the midst of school, boyfriends, huge stacks of dishes in the sink, family issues, and all the other facts of life. We never fought or had petty arguments. Each of our personalities is distinctly different, but we all blend together perfectly. And we all understood the prize we had been given in each other as well as how rare and precious it truly was.

I laughed so hard, cried so many tears of joy and sadness, played so many games of Mario cart, and ate so many home-cooked meals (compliments of Bri) during all our college years together, and especially when we all lived under the same roof. I put off more homework assignments than every before, but I learned more than I ever thought possible just by being in the presence of 3 crazy and amazing girls. We saw each other through accomplishments, disappointments, exciting times, everyday life, and sad moments. We bonded with each other in a way I had not before, and our I know our friendships will continue to grow and deepen as we experience all that God has in store. I look forward to a future full of marriages, trips, babies, growing old, and many more random conversations–and everything in between and after.

Thursday

You would think, on the whole, it would be a great day. The “Best All Around” of weekdays, if you will. I mean, we’re on the downward slide to the weekend and we already have 3 whole days of good work behind us. We don’t have to deal with the delirium that Fridays can cause quite yet, and we can now start really planning for the weekend–without that underlying knowledge that it’s still only Monday, and we have mountains to climb before our plans come to fruition. And, as if that wasn’t enough to make someone love Thursday–Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy, anyone?

So, fast forward to my now second semester of my Social Work masters program. Or as I like to call it, “Will It Ever End, 2007 edition.”

It is a requirement of this program that in the second semester, students are assigned to an Internship. Students are supervised by professionals and work 2 days a week when not in class. On Wednesdays I visit patients, and on Thursdays I work in the office with my supervisor. The purpose of this, of course, is to gain knowledge in the different areas of social work, learn vital professional skills, get hands-on experience, and put into practice all the concepts and strategies learned in the first semester of classes.

It all sounds very exciting and professional, I know.

For my intership, I was assigned to a Hospice agency. For those who may not know, Hospice is a service given to terminally ill individuals that includes obtaining everyday “comfort care” from doctors, nurses, chaplains, social workers, and many more. It is really an awesome concept and can be so beneficial for families during a very difficult time. That’s what they teach us to say about it anyway, but I actually do believe it to be true

There are so many uplifting and heart-warming stories I could tell about my experience with hospice patients and families. And I am sure I will, a lot, in the future.

But, I would like at this time to tell you how interning has ruined Thursday. That way, in the future when I am typing through tears about amazing moments I have had and all the wonderful people I have met, you will really know the complete story and know my heart fully. The good with the bad. The happy tears with the frustrated ones.

The drama all started the first day when I met the woman who I now know is my complete opposite in every way. I wish I could tell you that the woman I am referring to is just someone who works in the office. Someone I pass in the hallway and give a friendly smile, only to see her walk past me and hear her as she lets loose a few of her characteristic patronizing comments to some innocent bystander. But no. The woman I am referring to is not just some co-worker, but my supervisor. And the innocent bystander at the brunt of all the mean remarks is me.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not an overly sensitive person. I stick well to my laid-back guns, and I really do try to see the good in everyone just like every little social worker should.

But, this woman has broken me. I dread Thursdays when I become her right-hand girl and am subject to all her non-constructive criticism and craziness. Let’s just say, homegirl seems to have her panties in a wad most of the time. Why? I don’t really know. And for this laughy, light-hearted, perspective-seeking gal, the negativity causes a bit of failure-to-thrive. I have walked away many days discouraged, disappointed, and downhearted.

My soul does not fair well with such conflicting emotions and so much pressure. Thursday. It is a Long Day. Dreadfully Long.

If I was not so Southern and well-mannered, I might tell Crazy Lady what I think of her at times. I am sure you can probably think of a lot of phrases I might choose to bestow upon her. But, I would never do that because 1) it’s just not in me and 2) as crazy as she is, God has used her to teach some very valuable lessons for this road o’ life.

Lo and behold, I actually learned something through all that negativity! I like to call this portion of the experience “Miracles Do Exist, 2007 edition.”

Yes, Crazy Lady wore me down a wee bit. She was indeed the topic of conversation for several vent sessions with trusted friends, and I feel I will never truly understand her ways. But, somewhere along this path, I realized something I’m sure God has been trying to tell me the whole time—IT’S NOT ABOUT HER.

It’s about Him. It’s about me. It’s about Him helping me find my way into the woman I was created to be and for whom He has amazing plans. It’s about how I am using whatever situation (good or bad) that He has placed me in to learn and grow. It’s about how I respond to harsh words and criticism–not by becoming frustrated and offended, but as an opportunity to seek His wisdom and ask for His guidance. It’s about making the very best out of every single minute because each one wasted for fleshly concerns could have been used to give Him glory.

Good gracious, I wish I had remembered all of that sooner. I could have saved myself a bit of heartache these last few months–not to mention throwing Thursdays under the bus for no good reason! Don’t misunderstand, it is still hard. She is still crazy despite my moment of clarity, and the whole process is still a challenge. And sometimes I still cry.

But thankfuly, now most of my tears are those joyful ones I mentioned earlier. The ones brought on by the sweet stories and moments with my patients that I will treasure all of my days. I can’t wait to share with ya’ll what God has shown me through those experiences.

But, I am going to have end there for now. I’ve got to rest up for tomorrow–it’s time for another Thursday.