Christmas...sort of.

So...I don't think I ever mentioned that I got my license. Dad's paying for the insurance, and I am doing all the filing for the business, not quite a fair trade, since filing takes a long time, but it's a job I can do at home, and at any time, so it's easier then going out to a jobsite and having to work there.

My church had their Christmas play on the 15th and the 16th. I think it went okay...I believe we had 2 people saved, so all the time and effort we put into it was well worth it.

Here's a picture of my "wife" and me. That's Molly Buesking, who played Mary. I had no idea she was making that face, or I would have burst out laughing, and not had that nice, kind, and caring smile on my face. Molly's brother, Sam, is peeking out from behind us...with his eyes closed. :)

We went to Silver Dollar City on Thursday with a bunch of friends. That was a fun time. We even saw SDC's version of Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol." It wasn't half bad. Grace will probably get mad if I don't mention something about her...so...We invited Grace L. to come with us to SDC. She, like always, is a blast to hang out with. There, I've mentioned her. :)And if that's not enough, I've even included a picture of her. :)

I went to see National Treasure: Book of Secrets tonight with the rest of the family. It was okay, but nothing as good as the first National Treasure. It had a couple of objectionable scenes. Really, though, you could tell the whole plot from the beginning of the movie, and even though there was some good action-scenes, it was almost a boring movie. Broken up a few times, or course, by Riley's hilarious interjections. That's really the whole reason I went to see the movie, was to see him and listen/watch him do his lines. All in all, I wouldn't reccommend the movie as one to see.

Christmas time is coming!! Yeah!! A time to celebrate the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Why December 25 was chosen for the day to celebrate Christ's birth, I have no idea. Especially as this day is supposedly the day of Yuletide, which is/was a pagan holiday. No matter...Whatever day was chosen is fine for me, just as long as there is a set day. I only wish that Christmas wasn't as commercialized. It seems like every corporation, big and small, is out to make Christmas a time to make more money. They don't focus on the real reason for the season. We have Santa Claus coming to visit us, instead of the baby Jesus. We get, get, get...or for the businesses...make, make, make...money. Follow the wealth, right?? Greed, wealth, power...

911 ER Surgery Pasta

Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it. - G.K. Chesterton

These are supposedly real 911 calls. I don't know if they really are or not, but they are kind of funny.

Dispatcher : 9-1-1 What is your emergency?

Caller: I heard what sounded like gunshots coming from the brown house on the corner.

Dispatcher: Do you have an address?

Caller: No, I have on a blouse and slacks, why?

-----------------------------------------------

Dispatcher: 9-1-1 What is your emergency?

Caller : Someone broke into my house and took a bite out of my ham and cheese sandwich .

Dispatcher : Excuse me?

Caller : I made a ham and cheese sandwich and left it on the kitchen table and when I came back from the bathroom, someone had taken a bite out of it.

Dispatcher : Was anything else taken?

Caller : No, but this has happened to me before and I'm sick and tired of it!

-----------------------------------------------

Dispatcher: 9-1-1 What is the nature of your emergency?

Caller: I'm trying to reach nine eleven but my phone doesn't have an eleven on it.
Dispatcher: This is nine eleven.

Caller: I thought you just said it was nine-one-one.

Dispatcher: Yes, ma'am nine-one-one and nine-eleven are the same thing.

Caller: Honey, I may be old, but I'm not stupid.

-----------------------------------------------

Dispatcher: 9-1-1 What's the nature of your emergency?
Caller: My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart.

Dispatcher: Is this her first child?

Caller: No, you idiot! This is her husband!

----------------------------------------------

And the winner is..........

Dispatcher: 9-1-1

Caller: Yeah, I'm having trouble breathing. I'm all out of breath. Darn....I think I'm going to pass out.

Dispatcher: Sir, where are you calling from?

Caller: I'm at a pay phone. North and Foster.

Dispatcher: ! Sir, an ambulance is on the way. Are you an asthmatic?

Caller: No.

Dispatcher: What were you doing before you started having trouble breathing?

Caller: Running from the Police

_______________________-----------------------------________________________

Okay...

I had a surgical rotation tonight. I had 2 hours of surgery, and two hours of ER. Surgery was pretty good. They had someone who had gotten his face busted up in a farm accident. They had to do a facial fracture repair. They wired the jaw shut, and then peeled the skin on the cheek bone away so they could fix the zygomatic arch (the arch of bone that extends along the front and side of the skull beneath the eye), which was kind of in pieces. It was fun to watch, and the doc and the anesthesiologist did a good job of explaining things to me.

ER was boring...they had a slow night, so it's understandable. I ended up going with the guy I was shadowing to get food for some of the other employees. So I didn't get a whole lot of gruesome stuff. Oh well...more next time.

Surgery and Symphony

"So what makes you want to be a Colon Surgeon?" This was the question asked of me by the lead surgeon in the operating room in the hospital. I was standing not 3 feet away, watching as he reached into the hole in the patient's abdomen, pulled out a couple of feet of the colon, and let it slip through his fingers back into the abdomen. I chuckled nervously, and said, "well, I haven't decided if I want to specialize in any specific type of surgery yet."

This was my introduction into Surgery. My 3rd rotational night as a MedEx started out in the Operation Room with a good friend that I used to go to church with, Michelle. We watched the surgeon perform a colonectomy and a gallbladder removal. The colon had cancer in it, and so they removed about 1 and 1/2 feet. So the person had a hard time walking after that, cause they only had half of a foot left. And no right. Can you imagine walking with only half of your left foot, and no right?? Except that's not exactly what happened. What I meant to say was that a foot and a half of the colon was removed. I didn't know that colons had feet, but I guess they do. After all, I watched them being removed. As for the gallbladder, the removal was unexpected. Let me rephrase that. They meant to remove it, but they didn't know they were going to remove until after the surgery started. I'll let the surgeon's wisdom explain.
Lead Surgeon: "Is that the gallbladder?? Hmmm.....it's now the largest organ in the body."
Back-up Surgeon: "Excuse me, but the skin is the body's largest organ."
LS: "Ha. Notice I said 'largest organ in the body', not of the body. Anyway, that's not a good thing, that the gallbladder's that large...Let's take it out." *turns to Michelle and me* "We weren't planning on doing this originally, but it'll save problems for the patient later if we take it out now."
I'm like, 'okay, whatever you think is best, cause I sure don't know what you know.'
After spending two hours in the OR, I took a two hour rotation in Neuro-Intermediate, where I had my first rotation. I met this really neat guy. He was telling me all these stories about when he was in the Navy. He was so incredibly funny. Example:
Nurse Aide: George*, this is Josiah. He's a Medical Explorer, following me around tonight."
George: Well, good to meet you."
Nurse Aide: *speaking to me, but still facing George* "He's a truck driver."
George: *to me* "You're a truck driver??? You sure don't look like a truck driver."

Or how about when I first met him.
Nurse Aide: *before we enter room* "This next guy is hilarious. He's always making funny comments or taking something that anyone would normally know what you meant, and acting like it means something different."
*entering room*
George: "Where you been?? I've been waiting my whole life for you to come. I always knew you were the one for me."
Nurse Aide: *turns to me* "See what I mean?"

I went to the Symphony performance tonight. They had an amazing cellist. Just phenomonal. Incredible emotion. Wonderful control. And Jewish to boot.
Need I say more?? Oh yeah. You should have been there. It was amazinging, phenomonal, incredible, emotional, wonderful, controlled...wait, I've already said most of that. We'll just stick with the "you should have been there" part.

*Patient's name changed so as to not violate HIPAA laws.

Grandpa dying...and other various updates on things that I haven't posted about for a while, or just random items I wanted to throw in, just to make y

our day, since you checked my blog again...so faithfully.

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”-C.S.Lewis.

What an awesome quote!!! I totally love it.

Well...my dad's dad is slowly dying. He had been in a nursing home for numerous reasons. He had a massive heart attack on Friday morning, and was admitted to the hospital immediately. Tuesday, they found out he had double pneumonia, and kidney failure.

We went up to visit both grandma (who's also in the nursing home up there) and grandpa on Sunday. As far as I know, Grandpa is a Christian. Of course, that is only really known between him and God. I kind of think that it would be best if Grandpa died pretty soon. No more suffering for him. And most of the family is either already there, or coming in this weekend. We'll just see what happens. I'll try to update the blog if we find anything else out. (i.e. major changes in his condition).

I worked at the S-'s new house on Monday and Tuesday. I was working with J, L, S, J, J, and W. Plus two sheetrockers. We sheetrocked almost the entire upstairs walls and ceilings. I am sooo sore. I am totally not used to working with sheetrock up over my head. In fact, I'm not used to working with sheetrock at all. :) I had a massage today, so that made up for a little bit of the soreness.

Last Thursday, I had my 2nd clinical rotation. I was on the Post-Surgical ICU ward. Okay, so last time, when I approached the nurses station to find out what I was doing, the stuck me with a nurse for the 2 hours that I was there. This time, in the ICU, they told me to do whatever I wanted. Just walk around, visit all the rooms, talk to whoever I felt like talking to, etc...So I did. I helped with a bed turning, and helped clean a room out. And I watched/helped with a lung suctioning. I almost passed out at that one. The fellow doing the lung suctioning was a student at a local college. He was being supervised by a respiratory therapist. Anyway, he was up the nose and going down the back of the throat with this tube, suctioning the whole time. Then all of the sudden the junk he was suctioning up changed colors, and the RP in charge said, "I think you're in the esophagus." Yeah...the room started to get a little warm feeling at this point. I'm holding down this poor old lady's hands so she wouldn't grab at the tube going down her throat. She was coughing and gagging. So the student tries again..."nope, still in the esophagus. Pull it out a little until you can feel that you're in the back of the throat. Twist the tube around if you can't tell." Here's where my vision starts to tunnel. It would have been just fine if I was the one doing the operation, but to sit and just watch while feeling this old lady struggle under my hands was almost too much. After the guy got done, I went out into the hallway, and took a few deep breathes. The awful feeling went away pretty quickly, but I'm glad I didn't have to watch multiple lung suctions in a row.

Next week I have 2 rotations on the same day. One is watching a surgery, and the other is the same as my first, Neuro Nursing. So hopefully my feet and back won't give out. Then I've got a piano recital the next day. I'm playing a piece by Chopin, called Nocturne. The actual song itself isn't too difficult, it's just getting the style and accidentals right. And all the stinking trills. Actually, the trills make it easier, cause if you mess up, then you can trill or chromatic up or down to the right note. :)

We had our family picture taken a couple of weeks ago. Here's a couple of the results.

Don't we look grand?? Or at least like a hundred dollars?

And here's the good-looking bunch of boys. Except for....well, I won't write that. Just use whatever your imagination brings to mind. :) And here's me...trying to look smart. Notice the light bulb above my head is not lit. In fact, it almost looks burnt out. :)

And finally, here's a picture of some clouds that my sister took.

First Rotation

So I had my first clinical rotation tonight. I worked for 2 3/4 hours on the Neuro-Intermediate Nursing Floor. Basically it has patients with anything from head trauma, to stablizing from a neuro surgery, to any neuro related disease. That includes Cerebral Palsy and Mental Retardation.

When I first got to the hospital floor that I was going to, I went to the nursing station, and told the secretary-looking lady what I was there for. She turned around and told the charge nurse that I was there. She started asking me what kind of medical experience I had. Like if I was a certified nurse assistant, or a med tech, and so on. I'm like, "I don't know a thing, and I can't legally do very much at all." She says, "oh, okay. Well then..." *turns to the other nurses standing there* "who should he go with so he'll see something really good?" Unfortunately, there wasn't anything "good." Or maybe disgusting...but to me, that'd be really cool.

I shadowed two nurses. The shift change came about 45 minutes after I got there, so the first nurse I had been shadowing left, and I shadowed the nurse that took her place. Both the nurses were really nice. They both showed me what they were doing, and why. The first nurse explained what in tarnation those diagnosises meant, and why they were receiving what they were getting. Basically we just went from room to room (we had 6 rooms) and handed out meds, and answered questions, etc. I say we, but actually, the nurse did all that, and I just stood there and looked handsome. :) It's not that hard once you've had practice.

Okay, now that I've posted on my experience, here's some of the world's funniest one-liners.

1). Ninety-nine percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
2). Borrow money from a pessimist -- they don't expect it back.
3). Time is what keeps things from happening all at once.
4). Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.
5). I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.
6). Always go to other people’s funerals, or they won’t go to yours.
7). Few women admit their age; few men act it.
8). If we aren't supposed to eat animals, why are they made with meat?
9). No one is listening until you make a mistake.
10). Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
11). We have enough youth. How about a fountain of "Smart"?
12). He who laughs last thinks slowest.
13). Campers: Nature’s way of feeding mosquitoes.
14). Always remember that you are unique; just like everyone else.
15). Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.

my life, as I don't know it.

Hmmm...it's been a while.

Well...I did it again. I am now laying on the couch in our den...unable to rise and walk normally. I have twisted my ankle again. In the same manner as I did before, though not nearly as bad. I was playing football, and came down hard on the side of my foot. My ankle bent...and it now hurts....really badly. I don't know if that is correct or not. Should I say "really badly", "really bad", "real badly", or "real bad"? I don't really care right now.

Anyway, I now have a goose egg on the side of my foot that looks vaguely familiar. I think I had one for about 6 or 7 weeks earlier this year. I can sort of walk on it, but I have to at least wear a brace, and it's slow going. I am also sick with some bug. I've got a pretty sweet headache, and chest congestion. Besides the fact that my leg pounds with every heartbeat.

But...I'm still saved, Jesus still loves me, and I love Him. So everything's good.

Tuesday I have my first Clinical Rotation in the Hospital. I am going to do Neuro-Intermediate Nursing...I'll let you know what it entails and how it went after I finish. Then on the 1st of November, I've got a rotation in Post-Surgical ICU, and 2 weeks after that, I've got a rotation in Surgery, and another in Neuro-Intermediate Nursing.

Yesterday I had to teach Guitar theory at orchestra. Liz is on "vacation" and so I became the teacher instead of Mr. Crowd Control. Have you ever tried teaching 13 boys (ages 8-11ish) and keeping them under control? And when you have no clue what you are teaching, since you have never had a guitar lesson in your life, and the only thing you know about it, you've taught yourself. That'd be me! Yeah. And btw, Pris, if you read this before Liz leaves, which I kind of doubt you will...tell her that she is supposed to get a candy bar this next week from one of her theory students. :)

Here's some more quotes for you LotR fanatics...or at least those of us who love to hear some of Tolkien's works again and again. These are from the book, this time. Just for you, Grace. :)

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." - Bilbo at his party

"Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow; The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow."; - Theoden before battle at Helm's Deep

In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl, under the archway that no ememy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face. All save one. There waiting, silent and still in the space before the Gate, sat Gandalf upon Shadowfax: Shadowfax who alone amoung the free horses of the earth endured the terror, unmoving, steadfast as a graven image in Rath Dínin. "You cannot enter here," said Gandalf, and the huge shadow halted. "Go back to the abyss prepared for you! Go back! Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your master. Go!" The Black Rider flung back his hood, and behold! he had a kingly crown; and yet upon no head visible was it set. The red fires shone between it and the mantled shoulders vast and dark. From a mouth unseen there came a deadly laughter. "Old fool!' he said. 'Old fool! This is my hour. Do you not know death when you see it? Die now and curse in vain!" And with that he lifted high his sword and flames ran down the blade. Gandalf did not move. And in that very moment, away behind behind in some courtyard of the City, a cock crowed. Shrill and clear he crowed, recking nothing of wizardry or war, welcoming only the morning that in the sky far above the shadows of death was coming with the dawn. And as if in answer there came from far away another note. Horns, horns, horns. In dark Mindolluin's sides they dimly echoed. Great horns of the North wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last. - Gandalf confronts the Witch King



And two from the Movie.

Home is behind
The world ahead
and there are many paths to tread
Through shadow to the edge of night
until the stars are all alight
Mist and shadow
Cloud and shade
All shall fade
All shall... fade.
- Pippin sings to Denethor

can't you just hear Pip singing this haunting song?

"Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered. It is a sword-day; a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now! Ride now! Ride for ruin, and the world's ending! Forth Eorlingas!";
- Theoden to the Rohirrim, before battle at the Pelennor

Inspiration to end the world, eh?

Lord of the Rings

Okay, so I must needs post on some favorite quotes from Lord of The Rings. Thank you to Mr. Tolkien for writing this so many years ago, so that I could post them on the internet. :)

“Sam: [Both are overcome by exhaustion] Do you remember the Shire, Mr. Frodo? It'll be spring soon. And the orchards will be in blossom. And the birds will be nesting in the hazel thicket. And they'll be sowing the summer barley in the lower fields... and eating the first of the strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries?

Frodo: No, Sam. I can't recall the taste of food... nor the sound of water... nor the touch of grass. I'm... naked in the dark, with nothing, no veil... between me... and the wheel of fire! I can see him... with my waking eyes!

Sam: Then let us be rid of it... once and for all! Come on, Mr. Frodo. I can't carry it for you... but I can carry you!”

How this could apply to our lives as Christians! Christ commands us to carry one another's burdens. See Galatians 6:2 "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." In this case, Sam could not carry Frodo's burden, and burden it was, but he did what he could. In this case, he carried Frodo himself.

Pippin: I feel like I'm back at the Green Dragon.

Merry: [through a mouthful of food] Mm. Green Dragon.

Pippin: A mug of ale in my hand, putting my feet up on a settle after a hard day's work.

Merry: Only, you've never done a hard day's work.

[They laugh; Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli ride up. Merry stands and gives an exaggerated bow]

Merry: Welcome, my lords, to Isengard!

Gimli: You young rascals! A merry hunt you've led us on, and now we find you... feasting and... and *smoking.*

Pippin: We are sitting on a field of victory enjoying a few well-earned comforts.

[Merry blows a smoke ring]

Pippin: The salted pork is particularly good.

Gimli: [eagerly] Salted pork?

Gandalf: [exasperated] Hobbits.

Merry: We're under orders from Treebeard, who has taken over management of Isengard.

Treebeard: [as they walk toward the tower] Hroom, young master Gandalf! I'm relieved that you've come. Wood and water, stock and stone I can master, but there's a wizard to manage here. Locked his tower.”

I love the part where Merry tells Pip that he's never done a hard day's work in his life. That'd be completely true for a Hobbit. And watching the actors doing this scene in the movie is totally cool.

No TB...Lots of Music...And Pastor's Day!

I haven’t been exposed to TB! No Pris, that’s not you this time. It’s Tuberculosis. On Tuesday, I had the orientation meeting for Medical Explorers, and I had to get a TB Skin Test. They inject a little bit of the virus under your skin, and if you’ve ever been exposed to it, then your body will have antibodies still roaming around, so the spot where you got the injection will flare up a little bit. Sort of like a poison ivy rash, but just one bump. Well, anyway, I didn’t have it.
I went bike riding with Owen on Saturday. We went 22 miles on the trail. I hadn’t ridden but once in at least a year. I felt really sore afterwards. That night, the PHPHSO performed the Pre-Concert Performance at the Symphony. It was Liz and Joy’s last performance. It actually went fairly well. We had a fairly large crowd listening to us.
The actual Symphony performance was really good. The piano player they had as the guest artist was fairly good, but the piano wasn’t milked, and she got drowned out a lot, so you really couldn’t tell how good she really was. The second half of the performance was one of the 2 best ½ performances I’ve ever been to. They played some music written about the 1001 Tales of the Arabian Nights, by Rimsky-Korsakov. Wow.

One of the songs was totally cool. As soon as it started, I got a picture in my mind, then as the song went on, the picture grew into a tale, the last battle of a war that had gone on for many years. The "good" country was outnumbered in this last battle, yet they had to win, or all would be lost. As they arrayed for battle in a wooded area, trumpets sounded, and over a hill in front of their lines came a massive troop of enemy cavalry. (Here at this point I’ll call the "good" guys: Foodsnogites; and the "bad" guys: Santaites.) The Foodsnogites gave a great cheer to boost their morale as they prepared to withstand a charge. Then from the left came another trumpet sounding, and another troop of Santaite Cavalry came trotting down the hill. Morale in the Foodsnogite’s ranks fell, but they prepared themselves to face the enemy on their left flank and in the center. Again, a trumpet sounded, and a third troop came over a low rise on the Foodsnogite’s right flank. As the Santaites rushed down upon the Foodsnogites, a fourth trumpet sounded, this one a different tone. From behind the Foodsnogites came their reinforcements. Yet it was pitifully small. All day long the battle was fought, the country’s freedom and existence on the line. Against impossibly horrible odds, the Foodsnogites struggled valiantly. The sweat trickled down the tear and bloodstained faces.

As the day drew to a close, the Santaites gathered for one last charge against the Foodsnogites. The Foodsnogites knew that this was their last chance. They rallied together, their numbers piteously few. A peace came over them, and they knew that if they could withstand this charge, then the Santaites would be defeated, having lost too many men. The Santaites charged down upon the group of steadfast men, trying to ride them over. The first two rows of the Foodsnogites knelt with what spears remained pointed towards the Santaites. Behind them, the next two lines stood with whatever sharp weapons were left pointed out. What remaining Archers the Foodsnogites had alive stood behind the line firing the few arrows they had. The first wave of Santaite Cavalry crashed into the spears. The Foodsnogite’s General fell. The line wavered, then stood. Again and again, the Santaites tried to break through the wall of determined men, but in vain. At last, with the final vestiges of sunlight disappearing beneath the horizon, the remaining Santaites wheeled and galloped off the battlefield.

The Foodsnogites slowly relaxed and started to look around them at the carnage. As they walked through the forest, trying to find any survivors, but seeing only dead fellow soldiers lying on the ground, they started to weep. They realized the cost of victory was dear. At last they found the general, lying with an arrow in his chest, and his leg badly mangled and twisted beneath him. He tried to speak, but couldn’t find the breath. The men crowded round, trying to hear what he was saying. "We sure told ‘em, didn’t we?" Noticing the tears on the men’s faces, he spoke once more. "To cry is natural, but don’t let mourning become your life. You’ve won your country’s freedom, now what will you do with your Country?" His voice slipped off into a mumble, then he sighed and leaned back, closing his eyes and drawing his last breath. As the men buried their dead, they thought about what their General had said.
Very sad, but yet with a strange sense of wonderful Victory. They had preserved their nation, although at great cost to themselves.

Okay, I’ve got that out of my system now. We had some pretty cool lightening last night. I tried taking some pictures of it. Have you ever tried to take pictures of lightening with a slow digital camera? It’s really hard to do. But I got a couple of cool shots, with a little bit of lightening in them.

So, yesterday, the Mayor of S- declared Sunday, September 30, to be Billy H. B- Day. Billy is my pastor. He just recently stepped down from the senior pastor position at our church, and now holds the title: Pastor Emeritus. Yesterday was his Birthday, and also his 50-year anniversary for serving in the ministry. So we had a big shindig at our church. When Pastor came into the service (of course we made sure he got there late, so everyone else was already there, ready to cheer when he came in), the drummer played some sort of drum roll/cool intro beat, and then the brass section of our praise and worship team played "Hail to the Chief."

Did you know it used to be against the law in Kansas to serve Ice Cream on Cherry Pie?

My Decision

I know this sounds weird, but I've decided that I'm not going to get my license. I know . . . you're shocked! But, it's the truth. I've shredded my permit and decided that I'm going to let my dad, mom, brother, and sister drive me everywhere I need to go (which, as all of you know, is a lot of places!!)

I work at the Hospital....well..sort of, and not quite yet. :)

So I joined this group called Medical Explorers. It's for young people between the ages of 14-20 to explore the different areas of health care. Basically what you do is sign up for clinical rotations, only lasting 2 hours, in the hospital. You shadow someone (usually a nurse) around during that time. You can sign up for rotations in the ER, surgery, Burn Unit, ICU, Oncology...just about everything except for pediatrics and labor/delievery. Tuesday evening we had our orientation meeting. We have to be informed about all the HIPAA rules and all the different hospital ins and outs. We did "Gloving 101" where we learned how to put on and take off gloves properly. Thank God for Camp Barnabas. I knew how to do that really well, since I had to put on gloves about 3-4 times a day during term 9. We learned about all the different emergency situations, and what to do in those situations.
It was a 3 hour orientation. I hate sitting in a chair for that long. The cool thing about ME's is that once you frequent an area of the hospital enough, the people start to recognize you, and you start being able to do things. We are basically errand runners, but we don't get paid or anything. We'll have a business meeting the 2nd week in October, and we can sign up for rotations then. I've got scrubs, and at the business meeting, I'll get my official name badge and everything. I'm soooo excited! If you are interested in this program, tell me, and I'll give you more info.

Think....think...ow. That hurts.

wow.



For the first time in a long time, I sat down at the computer, and could think of nothing to write about my fabulous and fantastically wonderful life as a follower of Jesus Christ. But that was just a momentary relapse, because as I write this, so many things are coming to mind that they may end up overpowering me, and then my mind will shut down again and I will have nothing to write about...again.



I go to the college sunday school class at my church. We normally have around 6-8 people in attendance per week. Today, there were 23 students in attendance, not including the teacher. Yeehaw! It's pretty cool to have that many in the class. Discussions are much more in depth. The only real problem with the class is that the new teacher we have...well, let's just say he's a Cubs Fan. And a lot of the class are Cub's Fans. And, well, let's just say that it doesn't set very well with me. Cause I'm a Cards Fan. So technically, the teacher and half the class, and I should be mortal enemies. But for the sake of unity in our classroom, I've decided to put up with them. The annoying thing is that my Cardinals have been eliminated, and the Cubs are in first place in their division.



Next week, we are having a special service and after church dinner for our recently retired pastor. We'll have special speakers and what not. I'm supposed to be one of the door greeters. I'm masquerading as this dashing young fellow with amazingly good looks and wonderful manners. Check out the totally sweet adjectives and adverbs I used in describing myself. Pretty cool, huh? I'm learning something in English, I guess. Anyway, back to the dashing young fellow, etc... Maybe I don't have to masquerade...maybe I'll just be myself, and still fufill all of the above characteristics of, well...me. I really like that..."of, well...", I like how it sounds, the definite pause in between the "of" and "well", then the emphasis on whatever I say next. Works really well, doesn't it?

I'm supposed to work tomorrow. Haha...work..yeah right. I've got to do school all day, then at 4:00ish, I'll go and work the early evening shift. Something like 4-10 or something. I'll make 35 an hour, so I won't complain, and I'll try to actually put forth a reasonable amount of effort. Since my dad'll probably read this, I'll say I will put forth all of my effort. :)

I went over to one of my friends house yesterday evening. We played 2 games of Ultimate Frisbee, and a game of capture the flag. Have I ever mentioned how much I like frisbee? I Love Ultimate Frisbee! There, I've mentioned it. :)

I've discovered that if I drink lots of water, I don't get sick as often, my acne clears up, and I don't hurt myself as much... so I'm drinking lots of it. I reckon it's worth it.

Christmas...in September.

So this evening was our second practice for the Christmas play at my church. Tonight they were only working over lines and stuff for Mary, Cyrus (the innkeeper) and me, Joseph. My lines with Cyrus went really well. We got some kinks worked out, and some of the entrances and stuff just right. Then I had to do my two scenes with Mary. Well, it's kind of hard to describe on the computer just what it felt like to have to do all these interesting-sounding lines and stuff with Molly. It's kind of interesting. Especially since the way the play is worded, cause it doesn't sound at all like how Molly and I really talk. After we finished our practice up, the director asked Molly and me how we had felt it had gone. "Awkward," was my immediate reply. Everything else went fairly well, it just felt weird.

My new pet peeve: I hate arranged marriages, especially if it's just for a play. :)

Speaking of Arranged Marriages....aren't all marriages arranged? I mean, there's the church to rent, the Wedding Clothes to buy/rent, the cake and punch to buy, the invitations to get sent out...doesn't it sound kind of arranged to you? Or maybe you just call it organized. Like chickens. "They're Organized."

Apology, ACT, and...

I apologize for not posting for 10 days. I've been pretty muchly consumed in school and sleep. I had the ACT yesterday (the 15th), and I stayed up till about 3:00 in the morning just about every school night studying for the test. Alas, it was all for nothing, because I don't think I did too well. I'm guessing my score to be a 25-27 ish. We'll see here in a couple of weeks.
Orchestra started this past week. Good stuff. I get to orchestra at 8:30-8:45, and don't leave until about 4:30. So it's a long day. I started choir too. I didn't really know what to expect. It was pretty neat...I think it'll be fun. I've got the lowest voice in the choir, but I don't know if that's good or bad, since I kind of like tenor better then bass. Not all the time, though, it really depends on the song. Our Choir Director's name is Krista S. (I guess that's how you spell her name :)>. She used to be the Choir Director for L-R High School. She was telling us a story about a blind guy named Devin who was in the choir at L-R. I thought the name sounded familiar, so I asked some questions after choir was over. Turns out that I took care of Devin's little bro while I was at Camp Barnabas. His bro's name was Noah. I was really tired this Friday from staying up late, and then from orchestra, so when I got home, I went to bed after eating a snack. I think I was in bed by 6:30, and didn't get up the next morning until 6:00. That felt really nice.
The ACT was really, really tough this time around. But I don't like thinking about it, so I won't.
Last night the Double A Team we have here in town were hosting a rival team for Game 4 of the Championship Series. It was a must win game for the our team. We lost. They were down 11-0 in the bottom of the 9th, and ended up getting 7 runs in. So it was an 11-7 game, which wasn't too bad. I went with Tim, Josh, Heather, Jessica, Rachel, Elizabeth, Andrew, Sam, Mr. S, Mr. B, Jake, and Joy. Fun times, and there were some good fireworks afterwards.

Downdate

Okay, so my face doesn't look quite as bad as it did. My left eye ended swelling about 1/2 way shut on Friday morning, but other than that, nothing worse happened. I played Frisbee on Friday afternoon, and fell a couple times onto my wrist, which really hurt. But I managed to play okay, though definitely not with my full potential. I am trying to think of a joke I can throw in right here, something about my potential...I probably won't ever realize my full potential...or maybe I've already, climbed to, peaked, and am going down the other side of my potentiality hill.
This last Tuesday was the first practice for the Christmas play that our church is putting on. I am playing the part of Joseph, which shows how desperate my church is for good actors/dramatizers. Molly is playing Mary, which again shows my church's desperatism. Luckily, I only have like 5 or 6 speaking lines, and no singing or anything. I just have to sit in a barn/cave/whatever it was and look handsome, which I do fairly well anyway. :)
The play centers around a little girl named Maggie. The girl that plays the part is probably around 9 years old, but she plays the part sooooo well. Even at our first read through, she was anunciating and using voice inflection really well. She already had her lines for the first 6 (out of 11 total) scences memorized.
The ACT is coming up this next Saturday, the 15th. I am going to study this time, and try to get a high enough score so that I don't have to take it again. A 35 or 36 would be nice. :) This will be my 4th time to take it. Of course, the first time I took it, I'd had like almost no high school classes. And I was only 14. Each time I take it, I've usually added another year of high school to my knowledge and know-how.
Orchestra starts again this Friday. YEAH! There is a teacher's meeting today, so I'll find about who I am teaching, and what I am teaching. I know I'll teach theory, but how much, and to whom is the question.

Quick Question

So, I'd really like to know. The person who uses InsightBroadBand out of Louisville, KY. Do I know you? It's okay if I don't, I was just wondering. I understand if you just really like my blog, and love the way I write.

Wasp Stings

I've come to the realization that I don't really like wasps. I was trying to fish a bike out of some overgrown weeds when all of the sudden I felt a stinging sensation on my left hand. I thought it was a thorn, so I jerked my hand back. Then I froze. There were 10 wasp looking insects hovering around me. I looked at my hand. It had a big mark on the index finger. I froze even colder. I wasp landed on my nose. I braced myself to run. I reached up to swat the wasp, and it stung me on the inside of my left nostril. So now my nose and cheek are swollen up really badly, and my index finger doesn't bend. I took benadryl less then 5 minutes after the stinging occured. Here are some pics we took 2 hours after the stings.
So this is my left hand. I was stung on the index finger, about 3/4 of an inch after the finger comes out of the palm of the hand. Inbetween the first and second knuckles. Notice the shininess of the hand.
Here is a comparison of the two hands. Notice finger size difference.
I felt a little lopsided and really felt like I had a novacane shot in the cheek.
If I look drowsy, it's cause of the benadryl. When my neighbour saw it for the first time, when the swelling had gone down a little, she asked if I had taken up chewing baccy.

Okay, I've got two videos down at the bottom of my blog that you should check out. The first one, called Teamwork, is a video that Leadership at Barnabas showed to us in one of our training sessions. It's pretty funny.

The second one, To be Known is to be Loved, is one that was shown to everybody at Barnabas during one of our evening wrap-up's/devotionals. It's about the woman at the well. There are a lot of words in a short amount of time, so you have to pay attention and concentrate. It was definitely better the second time I saw it. So anyway, take a look see at them and tell me what you think.

Pictures of camp....
This one is of my cabin (B1) during Term 8. I had siblings. Check one of my previous posts for info on that. Here we are waiting patiently for the cross to arrive at our cabin so we can pray over it.

This is my cabin in the middle of the cross-carry prayer. I'm on the left hand side of the pic.

Here are 2 of the boys from my cabin involved in the carry. On the left is Noah, and on the right is Tanner.

And last, but most certainly not least, is a picture of the cross at its station at IP. With a gorgeous view of the valley. Thanks to Alicia V. for all the photos. Josh, if you want to send me some pics, I'll look through them and maybe post some. More pics to come, if ya'll want to see them.

CW Eppinette - The neatest guy that I ever did know.

More about CW. This guy was incredibly socially active. More so than me, if you can imagine that. He'd go up to someone that he'd never met before and proceed with these questions, almost always in the same order.

#1 "What's your name?"

#2 "What's your mom's name?"

#3 "What's your dad's name?"

#4 "Does your wheelchair elevate?"

#5 "Where do you live?"

#6 "If you don't mind my asking, what do you have wrong with you?"

#7 "Can you transfer alone?"

Sometimes he'd have more then this, and other times he wouldn't get that far. It was really humorous, cause I could predict the next question correctly about 90% of the time. And he started off his prayers the same way too. "Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for...(usually the sunshine)...

In case you were wondering, he could also talk. I didn't mention that before. His sentences were usually fairly coherent and well-spoken. If he was tired, though, he might do something like this. "George...um...um....um....(x3)." George was my nickname at camp. I got it last year when a bunch of people, including my 2 staffers, thought I looked like George McFly, from Back to the Future. I've never seen the movies, so I can't say whether I look like him or not. I'm also not promoting this video, because again, I've never seen them. Anyway, last year, everyone called me by George. I got really used to it. I even began to introduce myself as George. And for some reason, I respond to it better. Probably because over the years I've learned to block people out even when they call my name. Not a good thing, but possibly it has happened. :(

So this year, Term 9, I intro'd myself as George. One of my staffers started calling me Curious George, or just Curious. The nice thing about responding better to George is the fact that I was able to hear and act when CW called my name in the middle of the night. For those of you who know me really well, you know that waking me up can sometimes be an ordeal. I normally sleep really hard. For example, Term 8, we had a young kid about 6 years old that woke up in the middle of the night crying. And he cried for 2 hours straight. I never heard a thing, even though everyone else woke up and were moving around, and even though I was only 15 feet away. So the first night that I had CW, I asked the Lord to help me sleep lightly, or at least hear and wake up when CW called me. And He answered that prayer. I slept extremely light that week. Of course, I was a good deal more tired, but I was able to serve so much better. On average, CW woke me up about 3-4 times a night. Usually about 1.5 hours apart. Maybe that's why I slept lightly. I never had time to actually fall into a deep sleep. :) One night he woke me up 6 times.

You might ask, "how did you survive that week, and didn't CW start to annoy you?" My answer? I survived with God's grace, and yeah, CW did annoy me sometimes, but I miss him a ton. He was totally a fun-loving kid who helped me grow so much in being patient and being a servant. You know, the kids at Camp Barnabas are really the ones being patient with you, not the other way around. They've lived like this for 16 years or more, and are used to everything being down a certain way by people who are experienced at it. Then they come to camp and they get these totally unexperienced teenagers who attempt to do as good of a job as their parents, and who normally fail in their attempt. We talk about being out of our comfort zone, but how about the campers?

I've got some pics from term 8 that I'll post later on.

Tired..yes...Exhausted...of course...Missing Camp...absolutely!

So I'm back from Camp Barnabas. I had some really neat experiences there some of which I really enjoyed, and others that really tried my patience. My camper Term 9 was named CW. He had CP, MR, and Sclerosis. He was 17, but his MA was 12-13. The only things he could do by himself were chew, swallow, breathe, talk, and almost close his eyes. And none of those things were accomplished with apparent ease. Because he couldn't move himself, he would wake me up during the night so that I could turn him either on one side or the other. Oh, and he also had a dislocated right hip. It took three people to get him showered. He was laughing at us one shower time, b/c his mom showers him by herself all the time.
Since I have been home, I have not felt very splendid, and spent most of yesterday lounging around and either reading books or looking at various college websites. Why do those things have to be so confusing. I am sure that my questions about the colleges are the same questions that other people have, and yet finding the answers to these questions require going to what seems the most obscure part of the website. I have to set up an appointment with Drury so I can figure out what classes I need to have taken before I graduate high school so I can get in to Drury. If you all want to pray for me, that my parents and I would get my school matters worked out quickly and easily, and that the Lord would show us His will, it'd be appreciated.

Term 8

First week of Camp Barnabas is over. For all those of you who are wondering, Stuart is doing okay, he is alive, and kooky as ever. I am extremely tired, so forgive me if this post jumps from one thing to another without a subject matter change. I was in a Sibling Cabin this last week, which means that instead of taking care of a blind camper, I helped to take care of 8 boys ages 6-8. Each of these kids have a brother or sister who is visually impaired. These kids have totally different emotional problems then do most "normal" kids. You really have to love on them a ton.
I'm only here back at the house for about 4 hours, max. I came into town with some people that met from California. They came in to go to Bass Pro Shops and to eat at Lamberts. So I called my family, and my sister came and picked me up from Bass Pro. We are celebrating my older Brother's birthday tonight. So, after dinner, I'll meet up with my friends and go back out to Camp tonight. Tomorrow, the rest of the CIA's for term 9 come to Barnabas. Heather, Josh, Suzannah, and Natalie will all be there. This next week is physically handicapped ages 16 and up.
Pray for physically strength. My knee did not do well this last week, and I had to wear a knee brace all day, every day.
You can email me at camp. It is refreshingly fun and encouraging to get an email at camp. It totally makes my day. And it takes you what, 2 minutes to do? Email camper@campbarnabas and put my name, Josiah Hardin, in the subject line. Even if you just read my blog and you don't really know me, send me a note at camp. I'll be there until next Tuesday.
One more thing. I got to dance with the sweetest little girl I've ever met/seen...
More laters...

Back from being farmed out, and on to Camp Barnbas

All right. I've got time to type a few words before I leave for Camp. My family is having tons of fun without me on their vacation. They should be back later this week. I had a great time staying with some of my best friends. I went camping on Thursday and Friday of last week. Good times, caught some really big crawdads. And ate them. They are pretty tasty really. I came home this morning and did all my laundry, cleaned out my bags and repacked everything for Camp. I'll be at Barnabas for 2 weeks, so you probably won't hear from me in that time. If you do want to send me a note of encouragement, or just want to say hi, then email your note to camper@campbarnabas.org and put my name in the subject line. Getting mail is fun, so don't hold back. :)

Cling to the Saviour alone!
Fezzik

The big 1 7!

So tomorrow my family is leaving me to go to Montana. They are going for a wedding of my step-cousin. Of course, they have to make it a vacation, since they are driving so far. So they'll visit Mt. Rushmore, the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone Park, probably the Garden of the Gods, and maybe even Pikes Peak. And don't forget Rabbit Ear Mesa. The reason I'm not going? I signed up to work at Camp Barnabas for 2 weeks this summer. And the 2 weeks that I am supposed to work end up overlapping on the family vacation. So I am getting farmed out to 3 poor unforunate familes over a 10 day period before I leave for Barnabas on the 30th. I am staying with the C-'s and the S-'s and the S-'s. Hopefully I'll be able to camp with some of my friends while I am at the second S-'s.
Tonight we celebrated my 17th birthday. We went to Golden Corral for dinner. Our next door neighbours had given us a gift certificate of a significant amount becuase we helped them clean up ice storm damage when we rented a boom lift and cleaned up our trees. So we used the gift certificate to pay for the meal. $49 for the 7 of us. And that was during lunch. It's $3 more per person if you go at dinner. Actually, we got there at 3:45, so we got the lunch price, but the dinner price was efective at 4:00. So we ate a little cheaper anyway. And we ended up staying until 5:30. Dad had some of the waiters and waitresses come over and do the birthday song thing they do at some buffets. Scribble Girl, do you remember the birthday rap from Barnabas? I just thought of that now, but I couldn't remember it.
Just in case you're wondering, but you probably aren't...my birthday is tomorrow, but we celebrated it tonight, since the family is leaving at 4 AM tomorrow morning.
Now comes the traditional routine of any of our family vacations. Pack...go to walmart...pack...think about what you just know you'll forget to pack the next day...go to walmart...go to the bank...clean out the car...pack some things that you just know you'll neeed on the vacation...and then to walmart one more time to get whatever it was you forgot to get the last 4 times you went in the past 3 hours.
Btw, if you hear a song on my little finetune player on the blog and you are suprised that I listen to that kind of music, I probably don't. Some of the songs on there I have never listened to, but I had to have 45 songs to be able to use the player, so there you go. If you have suggestions on song picks? And also btw, it randomly shuffles through my picks, so you never know what'll come up next. That's the only down side of it. :)
You know how much I love frisbee. I think frisbee hates me. Everyone jokes that unless I get hurt or something, it wasn't a true frisbee game. Well... I've got two black eyes and a busted nose...does that count? I was playing at the S-'s, and I was guarding J-. I tried to block his throw by coming from behind him and diving in front of him. I dove too late and the frisbee had already taken off. But J-'s hand was still there. Next thing I know, I'm laying on my back with my hands over my eyes and feeling like my nose got busted. The side of J-'s hand had hit my face square on the bridge of my nose. I never felt it actually impact on my face. All I remember is laying out, then seeing J-'s hand come around and I blacked out just as I felt his hand start to hit my face. I came to laying on my back. Now it's almost a week later, and my eyes have been getting blacker as time goes on. I'd post a pic, but I don't have one. I told my family that I'd always remember this birthday as the one that I had 2 black eyes and a busted nose on. Oops, ended my sentence on a preposition again. :)
More later...

Football, Weddings, and Far Up Lakes.

This weekend went by fast. Here's the highlights. On Friday, I got together with 7 of my guy friends and we played flag football for 3 hours. In 90 degree weather. Understatement of the day: It was hot. But we had a good time. And my team won. Not that that made it a good time, but it did help a little.
Saturday, I played at Elizabeth H.'s wedding. There was supposed to be 2 ensembles and 2 quartets that played at the wedding reception. I was in the first ensemble, and then the older quartet, and besides that, I was kind of heading the whole thing up, getting everyone organized and stuff. The first ensemble went great, at least from what I could hear. I directed about half the time on the younger ensemble, because they were having a hard time staying together. Then a little kids quartet played. They were soooo cute, and totally were good too. By this time most of the people had left, and they were just taking some last minute pictures. So we had to have our pictures taken. End result? The older quartet that I was supposed to play in ended up not playing. Which was sad, because we had spent at least 4 hours together practicing. And we had this totally cool song called Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 by J.S. Bach. But we didn't get to perform it. Oh well.
Right after I got done at the wedding, my dad and I left to go home. We changed clothes, and went with Mr. Purvis and Ethan to a K.C. Royals ball game. My dad is a huge Royals fan, and sometimes he can get free tickets to the home games. This was one of those times. The Royal's won 8 to 7 off a single in the bottom of the 9th. The Devil Rays (the team we were playing) walked 5 Royals in a row in the bottom of the 8th. That really killed them. I drove most of the way home from Kansas City, talking with Mr. Purvis to keep awake.
Sunday afternoon we went up to see my dad's parents. They live in Eldorado Springs. Did you know sleeping makes a long drive go faster? It really works. It's amazing. After visiting my grandparent's, we went to the RA beach on Stockton lake. My word, the lake is up really far. The picnic tables and the charcoal grills are sitting about 5-1o feet out in the water. So that's how far the water is up.

Pyro Fanaticism

We had some old friends over last night. The Friedman's. They used to go to our church like 17 years ago. Mr. Friedman pastors a Messianic Church in Pennsylvania. Mr Freidman is a Messianic Jew. Right now they are feeling led to switch from Home Missions to World Missions. They are Assemblies of God missionaries, so they are here going through a mandatory school program at AGTS so the can switch to World Missions.
They have a 16 year old son named Adam, who I don't recall ever meeting before. So that was kind of cool, getting to know someone new. We hung out all afternoon together, trying to get to know each other. Then we went to JRA's I Love America for the fireworks. We got dropped off at Division and I-65, and walked the rest of the way. And we were moving faster then the traffic. :)
Some of the Missionary Kids from AGTS that Adam knew were there, so we talked with them till the fireworks started and then sat together to watch the pyrogenic lights in the sky show. It was too cool. I'd never been that close to big fireworks before... It got really loud at some points. After the show, Adam and I walked back out onto Division and got picked up by his dad.
Adam and his friends might come over tonight to shoot off fireworks, since they can't do it on the Evangel Campus where they are staying. Well, they could, but if they got caught, it wouldn't exactly be a good representation for the Lord, ya' know?

July 4th, 1776...2007

Happy Independence Day, everyone!
Always remember what this Day really means, and no, it's not about shooting off fireworks. Think about the price of Liberty, and not just those who originally secured it for us, but for those who have kept it for us over the years. This is a great day in the history of our great nation. But the moment we start to forget what this day really meant, and means, that moment marks the end of a nation.

Remember Independence Day!

To those who did what was considered wrong in order to do what they knew was right. To High Treason!

maple leaf rag

Back to Normal - Whatever that is...

Jessi and Mom are both back from their respective trips. Jessi just got back on Wednesday Evening from a 5 week missions trip to Haiti. Check her blog for info on how that went, cause I really don't know. http://www.anurseslife-jessi.blogspot.com/. So now I've got to start obeying my elders again, since I've got someone at home to boss me around.

Mom just got back last night from being with her mom in New York. Grandma has been in the hospital for 3 weeks now. She is stable at the time being, but they as of Friday, they just finished doing another surgery because her infection came back. They took out an area of infection the size of a grapefruit, and put in another drain. Her red blood cell count is low, so she is constantly having to have blood transfusions. If y'all could pray that Grandma wouldn't get discouraged, and would be able to continue fighting, it'd be appreciated.

I went to a wedding on Friday. A girl that I'd met on the trip was getting married, and she invited me to her wedding. And since I also knew that a lot of the people I'd made friends with on the trip would be there, I got my sister to take me to the wedding. It was nice being able to visit with them. Somehow, being together 24/7 for 15 days really brings people together. I may not be extremely close with any of them, but it's a bond that's different...and difficult to describe. And of course, the inside jokes always abound. It was really funny to see my sister looking at everybody real funny like, while we are all busting out laughing about something that would make absolutely no sense to somebody who hadn't been on the trip.

Funnish - my blog?

According to a comment made on a previous post, this is a "fun" blog. Never quite thought of it that way, but if that is the case, I must write to reach my readers. If you all want a "fun" blog, then I guess I can accomodate. Scribbles leaves such long comments, perhaps I should just let her have partial access to my blog, so she can post instead of commenting? J/K, Scribbles, I don't mind. You make up for all my adoring readers who desperately want to post, but are afraid of....something. I don't know what.

Okay, another story from Africa. In Cabo Verde, there is a bird, about the size of a large robin. When it is not flying, it is a dull and dim blue color. When it is flying, the bottom of its wings show, and the bird appears to change colors and is a brilliant, flashing blue. So anyway, there are 13 of us packed into a van (called an Hiace) driving down a cobblestone road on our way back home from working in the schools. All the windows in the Hiace are open all the time, cause I guess the a/c doesn't work. We're driving along, and this blue bird flashes in through the front passenger seat window, turns 120 degrees in about a foot and a half of space, hits the guy sitting in front of me in the mouth, and flies out through his window. The whole thing took like 1.5 seconds. Then everyone's like, "oh wow, did that really just happen?" Pretty different.

Have I ever said anything about the Toyota Hiace? The van is the size of a 10 passenger van. It has 5 rows of 3-seat benches. So it fits 15 people...legally. On last year's trip, they apparently got something like 20 or 25 packed into the van. I really wonder where the put the engine on this van, though. The front, well, there isn't a front. What there is, sticks out about 5 inches from the front of the windshield, which is pratically perpendicular to the ground. I am having trouble getting my thought pictures into word pictures. Does anyone else ever have that trouble?

I just got home from a wedding music practice. My viola teacher, Elizabeth, is getting married on the 7th of July, and she asked all her students to play during the reception. I volunteered to help with organizing the music and getting all the students together to practice and what not. Well, now my friend Suzannah (who also volunteered) and I are heading the whole thing up. Elizabeth claims no part in anything. And unless we sound awful, she leaves it up to Suzannah and I to fix problems with how the music sounds and everything. That's kind of interesting, and stressful. I have enough problems fixing what I do wrong. Luckily, I have this keen insight where I can tell anyone exactly what they are doing wrong. Sometimes that gets me in trouble, though. :) So this was most likely our last practice before the wedding. Most of it sounds okay, but some... I think I might accidently be sick on the day of the wedding, you know? But I'm not a chicken, so I'll be there, attempting to help Suzannah carry the whole group along.

All right, since I've been beggeded, I'll post

Okay, it's been forever. Well, maybe more like a touch over 2 weeks, but it's about time anyway. First things last. Scribblegirl, do I know you? I was going to try and guess who you were, but I decided I'd find out if I knew you first. For those of you wondering what I'm talking about, check last post's comments.

The final statistics for our trip to Africa. Our 48-man team handed out 36,000 packets to the kids in the public schools, mostly in Praia, Cabo Verde. We saw 78 people saved. 40 from the church at the bible institute where we stayed, and 38 students. We were there a total of 14 days, including the day we got there, and the day we left. When I left, I was quite heartbroken. I really enjoyed my time there, and it feels like home. Africa is where the Lord has called me to Missions, and I felt like... well, I can't describe it, exactly. The old saying, Home is where the heart is, well...my home is in Africa. I didn't ever feel homesick while I was there. But I am making myself homesick just writing about it, so I'll hurry up and get off this point, which is starting to drag. Did you know that if you drag a point, "." you get a line? "____" Pretty cool, huh?

This picture is of Jaqa and his 2 kids. He's not exactly photogenic. I took 5 pictures, and this was the best. On the last night that we were there, Jaqa brought 2 van loads of friends from around the Pedra Bedejo (the town we lived in) to church. We had to have two seperate services. We normally combined both the English and the Portuguese service every night. We'd either have an English or Portuguese speaker, and a translator. So we'd sing songs in English, then songs in Portuguese. But the church only sat 55ish people, so most of the time, some of the TEAM would sit or stand at the back of the chapel. Well, when we had almost 45 Cabo Verdeans come to the last service, we kind of had to split the services up. I went to both. I really liked trying to figure out what the preacher was saying and attempting to follow along. This is a picture of that last service.

I finally got my first chance to really preach at one of the high schools. It was interesting, because I had to use a translator, so I'd say a little bit, then I'd hear what I'd said spoken in Portuguese. Of course, I'd try to listen to hear words that I knew. And I'd get lost about where I was going in my preaching. But the Lord helped me, and I got a fairly good gospel message across, going from how we are sinners, and fall short of God's glory, to how God sent His Son to earth to die for us. How that He was a perfect man, and when He died on the cross, His blood covered our sins, making us presentable to God. Then when Jesus rose from the grave on the third day, after taking the keys of death from Hell, He made it possible for us to also be resurrected into God's Glory. All that we have to do to get to Heaven is to confess Jesus with our mouth, and believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the grave. You might think, what can I give the Lord for what His saving me? To be honest, you can't give Him anything. Nothing you had as a sinner would even come close to being presentable to God. Besides, the gift of eternal life is just that, a gift. It's free. God knew that we didn't have anything to give, so He gave a free gift. But since God saved our heart and soul from eternal damnation in Hell, the least we can do is offer our heart and soul to God to do with as He wills. Jesus stands at the door of our heart, knocking. Wondering if He can come in. He won't force the issue. The decision to open the door is yours. Will you open the door? All right, now that I've worked a mini sermon into my post, I'm happier. :) This picture is of me preaching basically the above sermon to a group of 40 high schoolers. Unfortunately, you can't see the teenagers. Oh well.

One of the High Schools we went to about mobbed us just to get to the literature. Here's a picture of the students around the truck. The truck is in the back of the picture. It's got a green canopy cover on it.

All the roads outside of Praia (the capital) are cobblestone. At least from what I saw. I think some are dirt, and the roads tend to be a bit rough at times. They are extending a paved road out of Praia towards Pedra Bedejo (about 40 miles away) that goes about 2 miles out of Praia. It's getting there, though.

Okay, before I left, I had no idea how to pronounce Cabo Verde (the Portuguese spelling). After going there, I've come to the conclusion that unless you want to call somebody wrong, there are 4 correct pronunciations of the Islands. One is the "European Way." Cap Vert (cap vurt). Vert is pronounced like spurt except with a v. The next is the "American Way." Cape Verde (cape ver-dee). The locals pronounce it two different ways, as far as I can tell. One is Cabo Vurd (cab-o vurd). The other is Cabo Vurde (cab-o vur-day). So there you go. Call it whatever you want. I prefer either of the Portuguese pronunciations.

Meal times were wonderful. It always good to eat. Most days when we were working at the schools, we went out to eat. From 12 PM to 2 PM, everything but the restaurants closes down, including the schools. So we'd go eat somewhere. When you go to a restaurant with 45 people, it takes a while for the meal to be prepared. 90% of the time, we had Fried Chicken, Rice, and French Fries. Good chicken, cooked the way chicken should be. Rice is a staple, and a good addition to any meal. The French Fries were so much better then they are in the States. Not nearly as salty, which is probably better. We'd just hang out and talk at lunchtime, since we had a lot of free time. I said 90% of the time we had chicken, rice and fries. The other 10% was fish and fries. For drinks, we had water, sprite, coke, or fanta (orange, pineapple, or fruit cocktail). I love Orange Fanta. In Portuguese, it's Fanta Laranja (fawn-ta la-ronj). Great stuff.

Okay, maybe I'll post more on Africa later, but I've just spent a solid hour at the computer writing about Africa, and it's making me homesick.

We had the Ice Cream Social for our Homeschool Orchestra tonight. It's like the year-end performance. We had 200+ students this year, so we split the Ice Cream Social up into two different days. Last Friday was the 3 younger classes, and tonight was the 3 upper classes. I went to both, since my two younger sisters are in the younger classes, and I'm in the upper classes. The performance was interesting. I hadn't played with the orchestra for 4 weeks, and I hadn't played my viola for 3 of those weeks. Some of the songs that we played, I'd never played all the way through with the orchestra. And I am the Principal Violist of the chamber orchestra, so I'm supposed to know all the songs and what not. Oh well, extenuating circumstances. I'm so sad. I've seen a lot of the people at orchestra every week for the last 8 or 9 months. My best friends go to orchestra, and I won't see many of them till the start of the next orchestra year. Boohoo. Waahh! I'll get over it.

PRAISE GOD!

JAQA HAS BEEN SAVED! GLORY TO THE LORD OF ALL!

Jaqa is one of the drivers for the team. I'd really felt like the Lord put a burden on my heart to pray for Jaqa's salvation. I really felt like he'd be saved before we left Cabo Verde. And what do you know?!

Jaqa hadn't ever come to a service before. But he came tonight. And the preaching tonight was really good and clear. Jaqa had been semi-following along with the service with a Portuguese New Testament we'd given him. Toward the end of the service, he was starting to look umcomfortable. He was covering his face with his hand. He finally pulled out his cell-phone and started playing with that. Inside, I was screaming "NO!" I started praying. Brother Joe Welch gave an invitation that lasted forever, which was great. He gave plenty of time for people to think about the service. Well, Jaqa just sat there the whole time. I was sad, but I still felt like the Lord was going to save him before the week was up. I left to go to the Brother Welch's house so I could e-mail and blog. I got here, checked my e-mail, started to blog, and Brother Russell came in. He was like, "guess what?! Jaqa has accepted Christ as his Saviour!" PRAISE GOD! Apparently, after the service was over, Jaqa was just aimlessly walking around in circles. One of the older ladies here asked a translator to come over, and started showing him some things in the Bible. He's not walking in circles now. He's on the straight and narrow path to heaven!

Everybody here calls Jaqa, Primo. And Jaqa calls everyone here, Primo. (Primo means cousin). But now we can call him by a new name, Armon (air-moan), Brother.

First Week

I finally have gotten the chance to use the internet. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to.

Well, I am almost done with my first week in Africa. It's been amazing. From the first step onto Africa soil, to giving my testimony in front of a class of 40 2nd graders, to singing in Portugese, and seeing people saved. We are going to mostly elementary schools, and some High Schools, and presenting packets with the New Testament and a couple other pieces of literature. We split into teams, go into a classroom, and our interpreter will talk for a couple minutes to the class, explaining what we are doing. Then one of us will give our testimony in English, and our Interpreter will translate for the class. After that, we hand out the packets, and then sometimes we'll sing "God is So Good" in Portugese. It's called Deus e Tao Bom here. Then it's off to the next classroom.
So far we've had some 40+ people saved. Especially in the high schools that we've visited. Keep praying for more souls to be saved. We only have a limited amount of time, and we want to reach as many people as we can in the time frame that we have. Pray for Unity in the team members, that we'll be able to work well together.
And if you're wondering, we aren't roughing it here in Africa. We have hot showers at night, good food, okay transportation, etc... We can get our laundry done anytime we want. :) I sometimes wish that it had been rougher, but then I get my common sense back. :)

Hopefully I'll be able to post once more before I leave, but we'll see about that.

I'm here! But where's that?

Safe arrival... at least to Ripley, WV. We spent last night in Cincinatti, OH. I wouldn't say we slept last night in Cincinatti, b/c we really slept early this morning, not last night. We stayed up and "partied" until 2:00 AM and didn't go to bed until 3:30. We played Ping-pong, Creepsy-Crawlsy-Slam-Bang, Bang-Bang-Bang, Billy-Whoops, and Spoons. All incredibly hard games that do NOT test your intellect. At all.

We left this morning to drive to Ripley, WV. We met the rest of the TEAM at the church that is sending us on the trip. There are 47ish people going. After orientation at the church, we went bowling for a couple of hours, and had pizza and pop. I guess PREACH paid for us, because as far as I know, we didn't pay a thing. After bowling, we came to Brother Paul Pritchard's house. Brother Paul is the preacher who got into the car accident in Cape Verde earlier this year. I posted a few things about him. He is doing better, and hopefully in about 8 weeks, will be able to put pressure on his leg. If all goes well at the check-up on Wednesday, then he should be able to start using his right arm again.

So we are staying at the Pritchard's house until 1:30 tomorrow morning, when we go back to the church to meet up with the TEAM again. The TEAM is kind of spread out. Some people are at the church, so are here at the Pritchard's. etc... Then at 2:00 we'll pull out of here to go to Columbus, OH, where we will fly to Cincinatti, then to Boston, then a 9-hour layover, then a 7-8 hour flight to Cape Verde. A long day. We get in around 4:00 AMish to Cape Verde.

I kind of doubt that I will be able to post anything while in Cape Verde. In fact, I'll probably only call home once while I am there. We'll see. If I can't post, then I'll keep a good journal. Maybe. :)

Today's Verse, and packing

I really like today's verse. "Today's Verse" can be found on the right side of my blog. You'll have to highlight it to read it. I can't change the font color b/c of the layout. Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.
Acts 28:31 This is what I am going to do in Africa! Talk about a verse from the Lord.

Packing is exhausting work. First you have to wash all your clothes. (Yes, I do wash my clothes on occasion) Then you have to pack. Then you have to run down to Walmart to get all the things that you forgot to pick up the last 10 times you've been there. Then you go home and pack again. Then you go to the bank and get money out for on-trip expenses. Then you go back to Walmart....
Has anybody else ever had this experience? It happens every time I go on a trip.

I think I am at 12 1/2 hours till I leave. Unfortunately, we are driving all the way to West Virginia, so I get to sit in a car for way too long and get way too stiff. Oh well, such is life. This will be my last post before I leave. No guarantees that I'll be able to post again before I get back. We'll see what happens.

Countdown to a Life Saving Mission

33 hours and counting. I love countdowns. They're so fun. This is the plane that I will be taking to Cape Verde. Yeah, I wish I could take a SR-71 Blackbird to Africa. It'd cut down on the flight time. Tonight I said goodbye for the last time to my adopted family. That was sad. It'll be even more sad when I say goodbye to my real family. :( Oh well. That's the way it is. I already said goodbye to Jessi last night. She left this morning at 4:45 to go to Haiti. Needless to say, I wasn't up saying my goodbyes this morning. I said them last night. By the time I got up, she was alreay in Dallas, getting ready to fly to Miami.

I went to the S-'s tonight to hang out for a while. Talked to one of my best friends and said goodbye and all that. I was really hoping that we'd be able to do that, since we hadn't really gotten a chance to say goodbye yet. Not that I am going to be away for an eternity. Only 2 1/2 weeks. I think it's the fact that we usually talk twice a week on the phone, and we see each other at least once a week.

This trip should be exciting. Especially the 7 some hours that we spend over the water. And the 9 hour layover in Boston. Maybe I can catch a game at Fenway Park while I am there and see the best team (for right now) in baseball play. But the chances of that are second to none.
I finally finished Chemistry today. I got an A in the class. I won't tell you how close I was to a B. We don't like to think about such things. :) Algebra is confusing me for some reason. The book doesn't lay it out very clearly. So I've still got one more test in that, and then I am done.
Okay. It's time to go to bed. I want to sleep in tomorrow, but also have to pack everything. And I haven't eaten yet. :(

Do I have the right to write right rites and copyright them?

Bom Dia!
Try this on for size!



When you write copy you have the right to copyright the copy you write, if the copy is right. If however, your copy falls over, you must right your copy.


If you write religious services you write rite, and have the right to copyright the rite you write. Very conservative people write right copy, and have the right to copyright the right copy they write.


A right wing preacher would write right rite, and has the right to copyright the right rite he has the right to write. His editor has the job of making the right rite copyright before the copyright can be right.


Should Pastor Jim Wright decide to write right rite, then Wright would write right rite, which Wright has the right to copyright. Duplicating that rite would mean you copy Wright’s right rite, and violate copyright, which Wright would have the right to right.


Right?




Okay. That kind of hurt my head the first time I heard/read it, and it still hurts a little. C&ace, this is just about as bad as forgetting what I forgot to forget. :)

Cape Verde consists of 2 archipelagos off the west coast of Africa. There are 10 islands. Of these, only one island is unihabited. All the islands are volcanic, but an active volcano exists on only one the islands, Fogo. From April to July, the islands average about 1mm of rain per month. It's the Dry Season!

Adeus!

Getting Closer

Here is a picture of Picos, Santiago Islands, Cape Verde. Pretty, isn't it? I looked at the weather forecast for Cape Verde. It's a high of 77 and a low of 73 every day this week. The only difference is a slight change in the average 16-mph winds and whether it's overcast or cloudy. How exciting!
Cape Verde is 4 hours ahead of Central Time. That's not too bad for adjustment purposes. And btw, locals call Cape Verde, Cabo Verde. And you don't pronounce the "e" on the end of Verde. According to all the pronunciation guides I've looked at, you pronounce it vurd.

It's getting closer to the time when I leave. I guess that's kind of obvious. My mom never commented on the peace and tranquility part of my previous post, so I guess she agrees! :0


Thursday creeps ever closer. It kind of hit me on Friday that I was leaving to travel 4,494.16 miles away from my friends and family. I was saying goodbye to a couple of my close friends, and wham... it hit me. I'm gonna be a horrible missionary. You know, it's not the fact that I'll be gone for 3 weeks, it's the fact that I'll be 4,500 miles away. I'm going to Camp Barnabas for 2 weeks later this summer, and I won't feel this way (hopefully). At least, I didn't last year. Camp Barnabas is only 50 some odd miles away. Anyway....


I really should be finishing up school right now, so I don't have to worry about it over the next few days, but I am posting instead. How sad. :)


I'm going to look for some new layouts for a little bit, then I'll probably hit the books. I wonder where that phrase came from, "hit the books"? I mean, nothing happens when you hit a book, except that eventually, the cover starts to wear out or something. I mean, I can understand something like, "Hit the sack", because my pillow could be mistaken for a sack, and I hit it with my head every night as I fall into bed. But, "Hit the books"? Sure, whatever.

Peace, Tranquility, and Star Wars. (I think)

Last night was the last Springfield Symphony Orchestra concert of the 2006 - 2007 year. It was really neat to go and hear/see the music being played. They didn't play anything from Saving Private Ryan, but they did play stuff from Munich. The song they played from Munich was called Prayer for Peace. I've never seen Munich, so I don't know where this song is in the movie, I just know it was really pretty, and had a really pretty cello solo.
Of course, they played music from all the Star Wars' films. So totally cool. And they had our local Star Wars Fan Force come in and show off. The FanForce is a group of geeks who like to dress up in Star Wars costumes. They had a full Darth Vader outfit (the guy who dressed up like Vader was like 7' tall with the costume on), a Jango Fett outfit, a bunch of Imperial Stormtroopers, a few Rebel Alliance Troops, and 4 or 5 Jedi, including Anakin, Obi-wan, a (white) Mace Windu, etc... oh, they also had Padme.

I leave for Africa in 11 days. I am getting exciteder and exciteder. Yes, I know that's not a real word, but I can't be perfect in my writing all the time, now can I? My sister leaves for Haiti in 9 days. I think it's finally beginning to "kick in" in her mind that she leaves in a week and two days. I think my parents are also getting excited that we are leaving. I can see the thoughts running through their minds: "At last, peace and quiet, not to mention tranquility!" If my mom doesn't comment on that, then we'll know she agrees. :)

I did not go to church this morning. I had a massive headache and couldn't even sit up. So I slept in till 2:00 PM. My head feels better now, but I still feel a little weird. Better to get a bug now then in about a week, when I am getting ready to leave.

This next week should be interesting. I've got a friend coming over near the middle to end of this week. His parent's will be out of town, so he's staying with me. But I've also got to do 2 weeks of school this week. That way next week, I won't have to do school, and I can focus on getting things done for my trip. One of those weeks of school is also my "finals week." Now, I'm homeschooled, and I am sure that I don't have as many finals to take as a public school student, but... My finals are cumulative for the semester. That's like having to know half the stinking Chemistry book. That's a lot to remeber, especially when you've got a problem like I have. For some reason, I've been losing my memory. I just up and forget things. Like just a minute ago, I could not for the life of me type an "s" without looking. I never look at the keyboard while I am typing. I know where all the keys are. And if I can't remember, then my fingers remember. I tried typing that "s" 4 times, and I still had to look in the end. Or I am supposed to bring something somewhere for someone, and I forget 3 days in a row. It's awful. I could go on and on, but I'll spare you the details. I even forget what I forgot, which is even worse, since you can't remember what you forget to forgot. That's a weird sentence. I guess that fits my personality, though. :)

Sonic Adventures

Okay, I reckon it's time to let people know what's going on in my life. Not that you really want to know. You just check my blog on occasion so that you can say that you have, and so you won't make me feel unloved if I ask if you have been to my blog lately.

What's with the picture? you might ask. This is how I feel sometimes, though not right now.

We went up to my grandparents on Sunday. We went up for my grandpa's b/d. We decided to go to Sonic for lunch. That was an adventure. To read a very well written, play-by-play account of our adventure, then go to http://anurseslife-jessi.blogspot.com/2007/05/sonic-adventures.html. This is my sister's blog, and since she wrote the whole adventure herself, I won't bother trying to recount it. Makes it easier for me, and she gets more hits on her site, which she loves.

Tomorrow, May the 10th, marks 2 weeks till I leave for AFRICA! That's not very much time. I feel like I have a ton to do, but it hasn't started to hit me yet that I don't have much time left. Oh well. About 2 days before I leave I'll start scrambling and doing things in a big rush. I'll start to feel like Larry Daley did in A Night at the Museum in the picture above. A little stretched, like butter spread too thin. But that's my life anyway. After all, I've already proved in a previous post that I am smart and intelligent, and because of that, I can wait to the last minute to do things, and still get them done. :)

On Monday and Tuesday I helped out at the Evangel College Garage Sale. It's actually a Gymnasium Sale. Evangel cleans out all the dorms of all the junk that has been accumulated over the last 2 semesters and sells it all. Last year they made over $11,000. Anyway, my mom, my two younger sisters, and I all helped out. We had to sort all the clothing and various articles that come in. It takes multiple days. But, while we work, we get to look at all the things that are being sold. And if we see something we like, we grab it, and stick it in a back room. Then on Tuesday, we buy all the things that we gathered. But the sale didn't start till Tuesday Evening, so we basically get first dibs. I got two of my friends birthday gifts, and spent like, nothing. That doesn't mean they are not worth much, but.... nevermind. I spent $29, but got at least $200 worth of stuff. It was worth it.

There is a Symphony Concert coming up on Saturday. It's called A Tribute to John Williams. The music is all written by John Williams. They'll be playing stuff from movies like E.T., Saving Private Ryan, Jurassic Park, music from all 6 of the Star Wars films, and stuff like that. It is going to be sooo cool. I've been waiting 9 months for this concert. I got a group together to go with me. I am going with 51 others. I asked people if they wanted to go, and if they did, then they could give me the money by last Monday, and I'd buy the tickets for them. This way, we could all sit together. So I went in Monday morning, and bought 49 tickets (we had 3 free tickets given to me by a Symphony member). The fellow working at the desk selected 52 seats one by one, and then said,

"Those are $26 a piece, so your total come out to $1274.

Me: Umm... I am using these $5 vouchers for the tickets.

Him: Oh. Okay. (speaking to a lady in the back) How do I do these vouchers?

Well, they got it worked out, and the fellow then had to select all the seats again, one by one.

Him: Okay, your total will be $245.

Well, that's how much money I had, so I handed over the cash. That hurts. I hate giving someone that much money. But it wasn't my money, so it didn't hurt for very long.

Anyway, now I have 52 Symphony tickets sitting in my room, waiting to be given to the people that bought them.

The World Series Trophy!

It's been a while since I posted, so I'll try and make a quick run through of the highlights from the past week. Actually, now that I look, it's only been a week since I posted, but it seems like forever. Last Tuesday, my family and I went to the Springfield Cardinals game. Actually, we went, set down in our seats, and left 15 minutes later, because it started to rain. One of the reasons we had gone in the first place was because we wanted to get our picture taken with the St. Louis Cardinals World Series Trophy that was on display at Hammon's Field. It was the last night that it would be there, so we went and got our picture taken with it. The picture isn't flattering, but... Go Saint Louis Cardinals!

This weekend was the Southwest Home Education Ministry (SHEM) Convention. It was held at the Expo Center in downtown Springfield. I was given the opportunity (after asking) to be a "page" at the convention. My duties included such things as: helping vendors set up and tear down their booths, directing people on where to go, especially if they looked clueless, answering questions for those people who knew they were clueless, and overall, just trying my best to look important. I had a great time. The hours were long, though. I got up around 6:45, left my house around 7:15, was at the Expo Center by 7:30ish, and didn't get back home until 9 or 10 o'clock PM. Long days, and running on pure adrenaline, but that's the way I work best. Of course, the next few days are miserable for my family. I'm nearly impossible to get out of bed. :)

And the convention was also a way to see my friends. Don't let anyone tell you that home schoolers are socially deprived. It just isn't the truth 99% of the time. Maybe it the truth 30 years ago when 1 out of 10 million families homeschooled, but not today.

One of my friends (Heather S) lent me a book called When a Man's a Man by Harold Bell Wright. She says it's a must read for any teenage boy. It's a good book so far, and perhaps I'll tell you about it when I am finished. But then again, maybe you should just read it for yourself. :)