How sweet it is!

We went home this weekend! And for good reason ... the dawgs brought home an amazing win against a great team ... LSU! It was a fantastic game. Adam and I didn't actually have tickets but we were fine with that. We ended up watching the whole thing at the Melting Point downtown and it was perfect. 

The completely ironic thing is, I saw more of my PA school girlfriends than I did any of our friends from back home! I hate that so much!  ... Wait, that didn't come out right. I ALWAYS love running into friends -- new and old --, but I sure would have loved to have seen some more of our hometown peeps! :( Next time, my friends. Next time. 

 Bryan said "hands on the bump!" and I just immediately went with it. :/ Hope Whit didn't mind! :)

On Sunday I spent the morning with my niece. We stayed pretty busy making cookies, working on the wreath for her mom, and making friendship bracelets for her and her school friends.

This was the final product! But because I used pool noodles (Katie asked for a huge wreath), it's not very stiff, and it sags when we hang it on the door. So we've got to come up with a support system for the whole dang thing. At this point I'm open for suggestions. I haven't really come up with anything great as of now ...

Anyway, I guess that's about it! Adam and I are finally back home now and are relaxing before the start of yet another wonderful week in Birmingham. My classmates and I have a meeting with the faculty tomorrow regarding our clinical rotations! I'm actually very interested in hearing alllll about this. Lots of changes going on ... should be fun. G'nite friends!

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Two Bags Full

Matthew 25:14-30

14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’

21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

22 “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’

23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

28 “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’"

Lesson to be learned: What you have is less important than what you do with what you have. 

Choose to celebrate what others have and leverage what you have.

My prayer will be that I "run my race" so that I bring ultimate glory to God and also ultimate satisfaction to me. 

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The land of the ER

I bet I know what most of you are thinking ... that this is another post about PA school. I suppose it is in part, but thinking of the overall general picture it really isn't. It's bigger than that. It's about another thought provoking sermon Adam and I heard at church with Andy Stanley this morning, and the effect said sermon has had on me. The series is called "The Comparison Trap" and we just finished the second part. The first of the series was called "The Land of ER" and the second one "Looking Around." The last one coming up is called "Two Bags Full."
Anyway, the idea behind the first sermon is that we always look to our left and look to our right to see how we measure up to those around us. If we feel outdone by those at our side, we begin to think that we're not good enough, that we're not measuring up, and that we need to be smart-ER or rich-ER or just overall in general bettER. He continued the sermon by pointing out that sometimes when we hear bad news about those that we often compare ourselves to, we deep down inside celebrate their failures because finally they don't seem so perfect anymore. Quite frankly that's gross. But the most disgusting and sickening part of it all is that he full on described me. I guess I could cover up that beast by saying "it's just human nature." Maybe it is. But I don't like it at all. And it doesn't make it ok.
I'm guilty of comparing myself to my classmates. How well we each do on tests or papers, who studies the most. I'm guilty of comparing myself to our friends... the ones who are buying houses and having babies (although I'm pretty certain that's just a jealousy thing because there isn't a dang thing I can do about either of those right now). I compare who vacations at the best spots. Who works out the most. Who's the skinniest. As absolutely ridiculous as this may sound, I'm guilty of comparing who leaves the sweetest anniversary posts to their husbands on facebook, or the best status updates about July 4th, Labor Day, Memorial Day, 9/11. I really hope that everyone else's posts are more sincere than mine sometimes are. How embarrassing for me.
I certainly don't mean to place the blame anywhere than directly on my heart, but social media is a huge culprit. It's planted such an evil seed within me that is growing a nasty, ugly weed. It desperately needs to be plucked. I hate how this all makes me feel. So what do I do about it? Well, the first statement that Andy left us with was this:

There's no win in comparison. 

I've got to be honest. This statement wasn't huge for me, but it was definitely a place to start. Even if I do meet some make-believe standard I've set for myself based on someone else's life, am I really going to feel at peace with myself? Accomplished? Will I be happy? The answer is no. If I always try to 'keep up with the Jones' I can imagine how exhausted I would become. Thanks to me being is school, Adam and I don't currently have much room for big expenses at the moment, so keeping up with the Jones isn't really a huge issue -- though believe me, if I could, I'm sure I would. Or I'd try at least. Ugh...gross! 

So the second week was definitely more fervent for me. He shared with us Galatians 4:4-7:

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Ok, so this means close to nothing to me without Andy's awesome explanations. With the bible (and also with greek mythology) I always have such a hard time understanding if what's being said is literal or if it's metaphorical imagery designed to paint another picture. But anyway. The bottom line is this. God is my Abba, I am his child. Just as perfect parents don't compare their children to anyone, God doesn't hold any of us to any standard other than those set forth in His individual, perfectly planned will for each of us. 

So. I admit to all of this because it humbles me. I've noticed there's quite a bit to learn when I humiliate myself. And if any of you are like me, maybe it can help you, too. 

I'll leave you all with a few things that have helped me along lately.

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Drace's Birthday Phone Call

Not much exciting this week ... just a whole bunch of awesome September PA birthdays! We've literally had cake brought to class 4 out of the past 5 consecutive days we've had of class. Love it! But the best news is, we have MANY more PA September birthdays coming up! I'll have to be careful in how much cake I eat. Ha! Who am I kidding. I'll have a bite of it all.

So one particular birthday we celebrated this past week was extra fun and special! It was one of our professor's special day on Friday. One of the things I love so much about my class is how we jump on things so quickly and take action! We only found out Friday morning that it was his birthday, and we immediately set out in our one hour between classes to get a cake, birthday hats, and noise makers and then planned a super fun little surprise party for him! He had no idea.

About 15 minutes into class, Lindsay called the telephone in the classroom where we were which completely threw Drace off. But that was our cue to pull out the hats and whatnot. Here's the video! :)

And here are a few photos taken by some of my classmates:

We wore these hats for the rest of class. :)

His cake ... it's an inside joke.

I'll leave you all with a photo from my birthday this past Tuesday. I forgot that I had this, otherwise I'd have posted it previously.

So, obviously this cake is half eaten already ... we didn't think about taking a picture until this point. It was super delicious!

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And so it begins...

I very specifically remember the now third year PA students telling me that this semester wasn't supposed to be that bad.... Yeeeaaaahhh, I'm really not sure what they were talking about with it not being "that bad." But I suppose I've made it through three others so far, so what's one more, right?

Anyway, let's talk about my Labor Day weekend! I'll just fast forward through Saturday very quickly. We had a few friends come in from out of town, and we had a few other in-town friends come over to watch the UGA vs. Clemson game with us. Unfortunately we (UGA) lost, so we'll just continue on so as to not dwell in the sadness.
On Sunday, we rented a boat on a small lake south of Birmingham. Katie and Chris joined us after church. I'm gonna have to be honest, it was most definitely a P.O.S. boat ... but I LOVED it. The scenery was beautiful -- there was no development on the lake other than the property for the boat rentals. And there were very few other boats on the lake. Here are a few pics.

 Sooo, there was this rope swing. :) Poor Katie has a pretty awful past horror story about a rope swing. She at first decided she was gonna do this one, but I think after she got up there she started having flash backs and decided against it. After hearing her story, I would have too. Lucky for me, she didn't tell the story until after I had gone three times. :)

Chris and I were the only two to actually do it! And it was my first time ever! But I wouldn't do it without wearing some kind of water shoe, so I slipped on Bryan's way-too-big-for-me keens, tightened them as much as I could and then just went for it! This video was my third time doing it.

To answer Katie's question, yes, I hit bottom every time. That water wasn't very deep, maaaaybe 5' (and that's being generous), but it wasn't unsafe by any means. It was so fun!! I'm super glad I did it. It was the perfect cherry on top for our boat ride around the lake. 

As country-bumpkin as the boat was, it was most definitely my favorite part of the weekend. I will absolutely be going back to that lake again!

On Monday, Adam and I spent the day recovering/cleaning/relaxing and studying. It wasn't very exciting, but it was just what we needed. 

And then Tuesday was my birthday!! Happy birthday to me! :) I had over a hundred texts, private messages, wall posts and phone calls! You people must really love me. :) :) It's funny how being in PA school changes birthday celebrations. PA school was mean to me on my birthday. See, we have simulation lab on Tuesdays, and I was selected (not even because it's my birthday ... it must have been because I'm just lucky) to be in a group of four students to treat a fake robot patient who presented to the ER with right sided paralysis. My group and I thought we did well until we found out that apparently we took too long to order a CT. Ugh. But that's how it is for everyone. You get into this room knowing you're on camera and all of your classmates and professors are watching you, and you do your best not to freeze!

But anyway, my sweet PA school friends baked me a cake, which definitely made my day better. :) 

That of course brings me up to now! We actually finished up a class today and have a final for it a week from tomorrow. I kinda love knocking stuff out within the first three weeks of the semester. Feels good checking things off my to-do list. Anyway, we start writing our thesis this semester, and the tests start pretty heavy next week so without further ado, I'm gonna go study!

G'nite!

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