Tales From School

So I just wanted to post a quick little funny bit that happened in school today.

We were all sitting in anatomy class, and our professor Dr. Paul is up at the front of the room speaking about the placenta and asking if it is a part of the woman or from the baby. 

So he says, "please give to me," he is east indian so pretend it with the accent, "give to me raised hands who is a mother here".  So the Moms start raising their hands and he starts counting. 

Down at the front of class there was Danielle, she is a young gorgeous single girl, and she absent mindedly raises her hand. For a moment we were all in shock! WHAT!? You have a baby?

Dr. Paul looks at her and says, "WHAT!? You have a child!?" The exact utterances of the whole class. She looks around and says, "WHAT! Oh! No! I don't, whay are we raising our hands!?"

Funny yes, but then I got into my bright little brain that I wanted to make her something funny because of her blunder.

I decided to craft a lovely card made of lined loose leaf ripped haphazardly from my binder. 

On the cover was her name all pretty and colourful.  Inside it said, Congratulations on your child!  I signed it and asked my seat mate if she would like to sign it. She did and passed it along, soon the whole class was chuckling because they were signing it and passing it.

Before I knew it, someone else had gotten credit for it, but it was hilarious when I gave it to her and her face was shocked! It was so worth it! PRICELESS!

She thanked me, and said yeah sorry I didn't mean to LIE about having a child, I just wasn't sure how everyone would take it! Being made up and all!

The End

School! The Taker of Time, The Builder of The Mind!

So as my faithful followers know I started the Psychiatric nursing program in Ponoka! Hooray!
I remember when I applied I asked God to let me go to school so I could advance myself, and because I felt that where I was sitting was not taking me anywhere else.

I know I need to find a good balance between studying and taking free time, whilst trying to not feel guilty about not studying (true story).

My first week was a little overwhelming for me, and for some other students in my class, there were endless lists of readings, and dates for tests, and projects and papers, I started to wonder if this was the right choice for me.

And then, I ran into someone who has taken this program, and she asked me how I was going to do it all, working studying going to school, and I said I don't know, I really started to feel doubtful about my ability to finish the week let alone being able to finish the whole 3 years (technically 2.5 but they call it 3).

I was awestruck, I didn't know how to rspond, this woman is a Christian (the same one in fact who warned me about going to YWAM Urban Ministries in Winnipeg) I don't know why I would be fooled into listening to her a second time. I know it was not her intent to make me doubt myself, she was just stating her concern, but I felt it, oh boy, did I ever.

By the time I got home however I started to get mad, mad at her, mad at school and mad at myself! I was indignant that I would let someone else speak that fear into me, and mad at school because I do believe that hitting the students hard is a tactic for "weeding out" potentially weak students, and mad at me for actually listening and believing that I was too small, too weak, not smart enough and all that jazz.

Fear not though my dear friends, this made me want more than anything to succeed, I wanted to be able to prove people wrong, including myself, and prove others right, including myself!

So, I have been diligently working at spending time working on studies, and spending time relaxing.

As I am going to be learning about drugs, and the risks involved, and the potential for potential harm, I felt the picture below was a great illustration.

Shocking Truths

My very good friend Jamie posted on his blog today, a series of videos. It was an experiment to see how far people will react to authority....

It made me think about how often in my lifeI have just given in because I thought someone knew better than me on a subject and ignored my heart and my thoughts.....

As Jamie says " I know I am too often guilty of taking the easy out."

But he also conitnues to say,  "Being like Christ is the path of most resistance. It is the lifestyle requires more of us than any other."

I am taking heed of these videos, and what they mean to me personally. I would really recommend everyone to take the time to view them.

Sleepy Sundays, its Time to Open Those Eyes!

I woke up late this morning, probably intentionally sabotaging myself by staying up too late, so I wouldn't have to go to church.

I've been stressed out lately. Worried about school, worried about whether or not it is the right thing, and worried about having to work as much as I will have to to stay on top of my bills and it affecting my marks.

This is not a worry post however, I will get over it all in due time.

When I woke up late, looked at the clock and saw what time it was, I lay there for a minute, rubbed my eyes and felt the cool breeze blowing into the window. Heard the neighbors talking about this and that, thought about how good coffee would be, and got out of bed.

I am feeling so overwhelmed by how blessed I am! I am so blessed to wake up today! I feel so happy that as I walked into the kitchen to wash up my breakfast dishes it started raining, hard, and the fresh smell of it hit me and made me think about the rest of the afternoon.

I spend far too much time on the computer, this is true, and in this under used time, my friend Brennie had posted on his twitter page a link to a comic. A very good one in fact, and it led me into looking at more and more of The Adventures of ASBO Jesus.  And then I found this comic. I wondered how I could let the things that are so beautiful to me slip away without being noticed.

So I wanted to issue a challenge, open your eyes and look around. Where is God revealing himself to you at this exact moment?

Humbleization - Not Letting Other's Vinegary States Affect Me

As my loyal readers know, I work in a hospital, on a brain injury rehabilitation unit, helping people who are overcoming traumatic brain injuries.

This summer, I've been working less than I would like because there is an over abundance of staff on our unit, and open beds that need to be filled still. Which means, our skills have been widely used across the entire hospital this summer (getting pulled to other units, sometimes for the first time, sometimes to units we used to work on) .

Some people have not been happy with said arrangements, I have been trying to maintain a positive attitiude, I keep telling myself that I am so blessed to have a job, a job that pays so well, and a job that teaches me new things everyday.  Sadly, I have been letting others' bad attitudes and grumpy dispositions rub off on me, and I haven't been enjoying going to work much as of late.

This past stretch of my shifts have been pretty well the same, out of 4 shifts, I was pulled twice. I finally got to work on my unit on Sunday evening, and I am going to be honest, I went with a bad attitude. I wasn't looing forward to being back on my unit, having people grabbing at me, constantly asking me to do things, and just complaining about everything...

I was helping one lady into her room to start getting ready for bed, and she was patting on her bed with her hand looking puzzled. I asked her what she was up to, and she said, "Oh, I want to turn the tv on". She had stated a minute before that she was going to brush her teeth. I asked her if I could turn the tv on while she went and did that. She got very upset with me, yelling that I was being bossy and that I needed to stop it.

Now I feel that I wasn't being bossy towards her, maybe I was, I am not sure now, I do know that I was struck just how much of a goodwill deficit I had been putting across. I walked away from her and collected my thoughts. My first reaction was a flash of anger... how dare she!? then when I sat down, I really thought about what she was saying, how I would feel if my nurse was dour towards me.

I gave her a few minutes to finish what she was doing and went to talk to her. She was still very upset with me, and I let her tell me all of her frustrations, and then I apologized to her. We talked for a little while and I told her I wasn't meaning to be bossy, and I told her I would try harder to be more responsive to her. She seemed satisfied with out talk and let me help her into bed.

I'm not sure if she has thought more about it since then, but I have.  I can't stop really. I need to remember to stay humble, to remember that I am blessed to be there at all, and that I am there for them.

I also need to remember that others are bound to come to work with the wrong disposition, others are having bad days too, and that other people have been wounded and show it outwardly. But, I, I need to be the example, I need to continue to be loving towards others and to let people be, well people.

Its amazing how God can speak you me through other people.

One Fresh Cookie - Thawing to God's Voice

So this morning I went to church. Sounds pretty usual, but I was feeling rather cranky and not at all wanting to go.

Lynda guilted me into going, and I am still rather tired, and still a little irritable, I did get something out of the message, just as she had predicted.

Almost the first thing I did this morning was check my computer, to see if anything had happened in the last 6 hours since I had fallen asleep, and I discovered my friend Chris had written an awesome blog post about being the cat. Its an awesome read (short simple and to the point) and it helps to set the scene for my next observation.

So there I was sitting in church listening, focusing on what was being said and how it was impacting my heart, and the part the struck me the most was how the kid's object lesson was about cookies. One cookie was fresh and just out of the oven, one cookie was frozen, and one was burnt.

The fresh one, is when we are ready willing and able to listen to God's word like in

Matthew 4:18-22, As Jesus was walking beside the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon and Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "for I will make fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him.

Going on from there, He saw two brothers. James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

How often is is we are the fresh baked cookie, fresh and new and ready?

And how often are we the frozen cookie, that just needs a little time to be ready? I know I am often the frozen cookie, waiting to see how things are going to pan out and working out the details before I feel like I can step into something.

And goodness gracious, how often do I act as the burnt cookie, not really good for much, and dull to hearing God, His voice and His plan for me.

I am so happy though to announce that even if someone has been drawn into the burnt cookie category, there is always more time, more chances, and more opportunity to shake off that burnt exterior and become the freshly baked cookie again.

Isaiah 1:18 "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

I walked away from church feeling excited that I get to try my hand everyday at being obedient, ready to act, and being fresh everyday of every moment, and sad that I have spent so much time as a frozen cookie, and dreading that I have been the burnt cookie at all in my life. Or the timid wild cat.

I'm getting so excited about school coming up, but I am also nervous about it. I feel this need to sort out the next 5 years of my life, when all I really need to do is focus on next week, next month maybe, and about working hard. I so very badly want to be the fresh baked cookie for school!

I will keep you all posted as to how school is going, I start Sept. 8th! Please don't hesitate to ask, or to pray for me, or better yet with me!


Love,

Crystal - one fresh cookie!

Dolls

I wanted to post some pics of a couple of dolls I made, for 2 very good friends of mine who are having to patiently wait for their child to come from Ethiopia, as an encouragement. I hand stitched and painted these, I got the general pattern from Inside a Black Apple .
And I had seen my sister in law, Coralee, make a doll for my niece's friend Emma .

Today I found out that the dolls were delivered safely, and that Jamie and Kim love them! Yay!

Oh yes, and be sure to check out the links to everyone's blogs!