Pray for China

Yesterday I was driving to church and heard a story about some of the foreign aid that is reaching  China in the wake of the devastating earthquake that hit almost two weeks ago.  Hubby and I went to China three years ago and spent two weeks meeting with church leaders and other officials and were profoundly moved by the experience.  Anyway, in this NPR piece they quoted a Chinese fire and rescue official saying that China was very thankful for the help it has gotten but that China is a strong country and they would be o-kay materially.  China, he said, needs spiritual help.  And if people want to help China spiritually they will go to church on Sunday and pray for China.  I think the story is linked here.  Makes me tear up just typing it. I'm not sure which is more miraculous, that a Chinese official would have the guts to ask for prayer to an American journalist or that NPR translated it.  So pray for China.  Pray for China.

Summer reading must read!

So I've started on my summer reading list a little early because Spanish class didn't require a lot of studying!  (Got a 98.75 on the final with out studying kind of class). I finished The Shack by William Young last week.  WOW WOW and WOW.  It was great!  It is the story of a man who suffers a terrible tragedy and three years later spends a weekend with God asking questions and getting his theology straightened out.  I am pretty picky about theology.  I think good theology is the key understanding Scripture and understanding our relationship with God.  I was VERY skeptical when I read this book because often these kinds of books have terrible theology that if you follow the line of thought behind it either ends up with a works based faith system, karma (as in if you do good things, good things will happen to you)  or a severely limited Deity in favor of human free will.  The theology in the Shack is really good, well explained and the story is pretty good too.  Bring the kleenex though!  Given that at least half of my readership is Catholic, I would also add that nothing that I read is at all anti-Catholic.  My cursory understanding of Catholic theology doesn't see anything blatantly against Catholic theology.  If any of my Catholic readers take a stab at it, I'd love to know what you think!  The Shack is worth your time, your book budget and the kleenex!

School's out for the summer!!!!!

WOW!  Two semesters down, two semesters to go!  I am done with school for the summer and I couldn't be happier.  I finished my medical spanish class yesterday.  I am excited to try it out when I go to Honduras.  I didn't like Spanish much when I was in high school but I took it for 4 years!  I really liked this class.  I like the challenge of trying to figure out ho to say what you want to say with the words you already know.  Unfortunately we didn't get a whole lot of time to practice talking and listening which is definitely where I am weak.  I think I can say most of what I want to say but I'm not at all confident that I can understand the answer!  Quiero ir a Honduras hoy dia y practico mi espanol y trato ayudar los pacientes.  Oops switched over to espanol there!  

The girls still have two weeks of school left.  I've got to figure out what I need to do before they get out.  I haven;t had this much time on my hands in a long long time!  I've got some clothes I'd like to try and sell on ebay.  I may get some of those listed today.  I'm sure I can come up with some projects around the house that need to be done.  I mean really can you ever declutter enough!  And I can get back into my exercise routine!  As it gets hotter and hotter outside the idea of running becomes less and less appealing.  With my clase de espanol at 8 a.m. these last two weeks, I haven't gotten in as much running as I would like.  Even getting up at 5 a.m. I only have time to run 2-3 miles at the most before I have to leave for school and it is too hot after school to go.  We are planning to use part of our stimulus check to buy a treadmill (good Americans that we are, we will be spending much of it!)  I haven't used our YMCA membership much lately but I can see going in the summer more.  Maybe I'll give swimming a try...

Movie Reviews

Hubby and I have watched two very good movies of late. The first is Feast of Love. Little indie movie with a big cast: Morgan Freeman is in it and another guy whose name escapes me a the moment but I'll figure it out and add ti back. It is a little slow but I think ti serves the story well to be slow. It follows the lives of several people in a college town and asks the question, if you knew love would break your heart would you love anyway? It takes a while to get to the question and you can imagine the kind of relationships we see that beg us to ask the question. It is the kind of movie that doesn't have you hanging on every word because the plot is so intriguing but the kind that afterward you think about it a little and realize you are a better person for having seen it. Very deep, I know.

The other we watched last night. Juno. Great little movie. But aiyiyi, maybe Teri can help me sort this one oneu. As much as I think adoption is just an amazing thing it it just breaks my heart., Watching the birth scene and the aftermath, I have such a hard time seeing the creation of a family and get really sucked into the broken heart of a mother. I told hubby last night that I think if I do end up on L&D, i will do better as a nurse to a family who is having a stillbirth than a a nurse for an adoption. That sounds awful but I think the conflicting emotions would be just overwhelming and taumatizing in an adoption.

Gotta go to espanol!!! Adios!

Where has the last 3 weeks gone????

So here we are.  It's been three weeks since my last post and I know the blog world is clamoring to know what happened to me.  HA!  Not quite...

Can I do an update by bulletpoint?

• Finished the semester with all As.  Got an A in my med/surg class by the skin of my teeth.  Literally. Got a 90.22.  Works for me!  I like getting A's.  I didn't study much for any of my exams because I really didn't need to but I think I learned that I like getting A's more than I had admitted to myself.  I'll study a little more next time.  
• I'm taking medical spanish for the next two weeks.  I think it has potential for giving me a very weak base of being able to communicate with spanish speaking patients.  Weak base simply because its only a two week class and I last took spanish about 15 years ago when I was in college. 
• I'm going to Honduras on a medical mission trip in June.  The plan is to practice my spanish and practice some skills and hopefully help some folks in the process.  I'm very excited about that and honestly can't really believe it is going to happen.  
• I have maintained my weight for the lat four weeks.  Two weeks to go and I'm Lifetime at weight watchers.  It has definitely gotten easier.  I don't have to track every point.  I don't have a desire to overeat as I used to.  I still have trouble believing I am so much smaller than before.  I went to Old Navy to try on jeans today not because I wanted to buy any (yes, I am sick) but because I wanted to see what size I wore there.  Shockingly, I wore a 4 in old navy jeans just as I have been buying size 4 at Marshalls and Ross.  My size 6 Levis that I bought in March are on the baggy side.  NEVER would have expected that in a million years.  I still have trouble believing it.  
• Diagnosed an MRSA skin infection on my dear sweet hubby.  MRSA is the superbug that everyone is so scared of these days.  He had it a year or so ago and after every doctor in church declared it poison ivy or contact dermatitis, his wifey said why don't you actually go to your doctor and don't get too close to me with that stuff.  It cultured MRSA and he was on Bactrim for 1 month.  Looked over at him last week and saw little bumps on his knee.  I shrieked and said, "Get that away from me!"  Just kidding.  I calmly said, "Your MRSA is back, call the doc and get another round of bactrim and get ointment bactroban this time because the cream isn't generic."  Always thinking of his and our pocketbook's well being.
• Ran another 5K that was associated with the elementary school carnival. The course wasn't well marked and the runners including your truly got off course.  So the 5 k was actually about 2.8 miles.  I was on track to finish under 30 minutes though!
• Almost finished Christ the Lord Road to Cana by Anne Rice.  It is just amazing to me that someone who was so hostile to Christianity, so lost, could return to the faith and write about Jesus like that.  I heard her say in an interview that she might write one more vampire book but only if she could figure out how to save Lestat.  Wouldn't that be amazing!  And just let me say that I read many of the Vampire books and liked them!  They're just very very dark.  
• Gotta figure out what to have for dinner tonight.  What's the vote?  Can you still have soup for dinner when it is about 80 degrees outside?  I love soup and I don't usually serve it in the summer but i wish I could!