Every Day Battle

Spring Break.  I've had one every year since I've been in school - so maybe like close to 20 years now.

And I've always really enjoyed them.  I love getting the respite from classes and schedules to have a retreat.  In college, I used a couple of these breaks to go on missions.  And then I felt I needed another week of break to recover from my chosen plans.  The trips always exhausted me - but I loved them.

However, this year, I feel a profound difference in the break I had last week.

You see, every day of the week, I'm with the same group of 14 people, and then add the faculty and the hospital staff with whom we work.  The majority of these people do not know the saving power of Jesus.  There might be a handful of them who do...but on the whole, I'd say I'm constantly around non-believers.

This particular aspect of my life is completely different from what I've experienced.  In my grade school years, my friends were the ones who were like me.  In college, again, my friends and the people with whom I surrounded myself were pretty much always believers.

When coming back from breaks from school, it was like being able to breathe fresh air again.  I was able to reconnect with my community.  It had never occurred to me to seek out non-believers when I wasn't on a trip for that purpose. I know that I was encouraged to simply talk to the people next to me in order to share the Gospel.  But I knew those people, and they were believers, like me.  I just never had the opportunity, or that's what I told myself.  It's a devastating reality, I know!

Currently, I feel like I come back from breaks more refreshed and ready to tackle the task of representing Jesus to my classmates and fellow employees.  Last week was a retreat from the hardships and frustrations of some of my classmates who, sometimes, just seem to not like me because I'm me.  I've never experienced anything so exhausting and discouraging.

But today, I really felt a renewed sense of purpose when Spring Break stories were shared.  I was saddened by some of the things I heard - mostly turning to alcohol to cope with life.  Oh, Jesus, if they only knew how much better You are at helping cope with life's difficulties!  But I will continue to love these people who were put into my life for a specific reason.  It might become discouraging, and I will become exhausted again.  I've come to expect it.  But I have strong faith that Jesus will help me in those times.

This year, I appreciate Spring Break for the spiritual renewal it allowed in my life.  And I'm excited to see what the next 8 weeks bring!

Word of the Week: EXCITE!

After that last post...and the number of real-people comments I got on it, I'm finding it hard to figure out what to share now.  So, because this week holds several different exciting things, I thought sharing them might be fun.

1. As I was cleaning up and straightening the piles in my room on Saturday, I found an envelope from Christmas with a pretty substantial amount of cash in it - WOOHOO!
2. UPDATE: I got to hang out with Nikki Saturday for lunch and some sweet coffee shop action afterwards.
3. I got to take a really long nap on Sunday afternoon.  It was a great time to not have an agenda and really relax.
4. The Oscars were on Sunday night - and I've never watched the whole program before.  It was really enjoyable, (update!)especially because Sandra Bullock won best actress and Sandra and Nikki are twins.  Best parts of the weekend :) 
5. Monday morning, the morning that I dread the most out of the week, I got up early to take my car to get the oil changed.  See, the exciting part about this not-so-exciting task is that I might or might not have a tiny little crush on one of the guys who works there.  When I get my tires checked, he always does it.  I'm such a silly girl.  But, Josh worked on my car and then I got the oil change and tire rotation - almost a $50 value - for FREE.  The reasoning for that was a little less fortunate...I had to witness one of the associates having what he claims is a "rant".  It was pretty violent - throwing trashcans and the such ( he didn't know I was there).  But I didn't have to pay for anything!  I mean, I guess it might've been worth it.
6. I found the most hilarious blog.  It's definitely laughing-so-hard-you're-now-crying worthy.  You should visit Cake Wrecks.  It won't let you down.
7. I was asked to come interview for a head swim coaching position in Spring.  DID THIS JUST HAPPEN?  I'm way excited.
8. Tuesday, which happens to be today, is the day that I'm going to Houston to check out a graduate program to become an ultrasound technician.  This is also exciting.  I'm looking forward to it more than I thought I would.
9. Tomorrow, I get to meet with a pretty important man in my dad's life (his boss!) to discuss my resume and career goals.  It definitely sounds intimidating, and I might be nervous tomorrow morning when I actually get up to go meet with him.  But for now, I'm just truly grateful and excited that he is taking time out of his morning to meet with me.  I didn't ask - he offered.  And I'm (for lack of a better word) excited.
10. Tomorrow night, I am going to see Rascal Flatts at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo with Leslie.  This is also exciting.  I think the plan is to eat fried oreos (or whatever else they decide to stick in the hot oil this year). 
11. Thursday will probably be hard to transition back into work after not being there for a day and a half...so that leads us to Friday and our roomie night at Cracker Barrel!  This is so great - Cracker Barrel just opened in our small college town, so basically, we just don't know what to do with ourselves until we go there (which is so soon!).  Friday night = exciting.

There you have it.  10 things that are happening (or have happened) in my week.  And, next week is Spring Break - which is strange because I have to work for 3 days of it, but I'm thankful for a 4-day weekend.  Until next time, when I find a topic that is blog-worthy,

Thanks for reading my ramble.
ED

What do you do on a Friday night?!

Personally, as a 23-year-old single woman who works 40 hours a week, I can't imagine anything better than a quiet Friday evening at home.

I left work around 4:30 this afternoon and stopped at the Home Depot, affectionately called the Orange Box in my family.  This activity was necessary in order to bless a sweet couple for their wedding shower tomorrow.  Walking in, I was greeted with that awesome hardware store smell. You know...the earthy, rusty, musty air. For some reason, it's comforting to me.  Maybe it reminds me of my childhood and the trips I would make with my dad.  Anyway, I know I have to get the registry printed...so I try to find an employee to ask where the best place to do that is.  She points me to the service desk, which is by the door where I walked into the store.  After the list is printed by the not-too-enthusiastic employees send me on my way, I proceed to walk around aimlessly for like 10 minutes.  I have no idea where to look for the item I've picked.  None.  Great.  Eventually, an employee comes to help me out.  I was grateful.  He definitely saved me from looking like more of an idiot.

I head home after paying for my purchase.  Once I got home, I really didn't have a game plan.  There were definitely some things I wanted to do: clean out the fridge, organize the Tupperware, and watch the Olympics.  So what did I do? I cleaned out the fridge for our house of 6 girls.  I wiped it out, and it looks and smells better!  I organized our tupperware

to look like this:

and this:

It's so much better.  After that, I washed dishes.  Or maybe I washed dishes before that.  I don't remember.

I then ordered my favorite pizza from Mr. G's and it was wonderful.  I got to sit down, eat, watch the Olympics...take a nap and then wake up in order to see my favorite Olypmian: Apolo Ohno.  Although I was completely shocked about how the race turned out, I've gotten to see all of his races in this Olympics, and that makes my Friday night complete.

For this 23yo, I'm fully satisfied with how my Friday night turned out.  Maybe this means I need a new life.

Thanks for reading my ramble.
ED