Please keep praying

It's a difficult time in our little community right now. Cody passed away early Sunday morning. Please pray for comfort for his family as they endure this difficult time. Kellen was able to make a visit home today, but is continuing to spend the night at the hospital for the time being. Please continue to pray for him and for his family as well. Even though it is not for us to speculate why God's plan turns out the way it does, I can't help but think that maybe some kids are just so special to God that He wants to take them to be with Him sooner...sooner than what we would like here on Earth, but sooner so that He (God) can have them with Him up in Heaven serving right there with Him. Even though it breaks our hearts, maybe those kids are extra special to God and He needs them more than we can understand here on Earth.

Praying praying praying

Please keep Kellen Keiser and his family in your prayers. Also, please pray for Cody Martines and his family as well. It seems like there's so much heartache going around our little community right now and there is nothing any of us can do about it...other than just pray for these two boys and their families. Sometimes it's hard to see why things like this have to happen. We often wonder why God would let something like this happen to two young guys who have so much more of their lives ahead of them. But it's not for us to say and sometimes it's not for us to know. I will just keep praying for God to be with them and make them as comfortable as possible.

Cherish every moment that you have with the ones you love. Make the most out of every day. Take opportunities as they come. When it comes down to it, love with all that you have to give. Every day is something to be thankful for.

Sleepy

Oh goodness, I am exhausted. I'm wondering if I'll ever catch up on sleep. This week has been so tiring for some reason. Probably because I can't get 8 hours of sleep at one time. I have never had trouble sleeping before, but it seems like now I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep until about 5 minutes before my alarm goes off in the mornings.

On the plus side, I've been staying busy and accomplishing things. After spending almost 3 hours cleaning this evening, I now have a room to teach junior high Sunday school this fall. I'm looking forward to it. Now I just have to tackle cleaning my own house and finding time to stock up on groceries since my current food consists of coffee, energy drinks, part of a loaf of bread, some stale crackers, and spoiled milk.

But for now..it's bed time.

I'm not afraid

I've been contemplating a lot lately. Doing a lot of praying and contemplating. I've been thinking a lot lately about life in general..about all the things that have happened in my life and how they have shaped me into who I am today. I want to be a better person. I think I have become a better person, but I still want to be better. I still want to live up to what I was created to be. I have a long ways to go.

I'm reading a book right now that is changing my life. It's changing my perspective. It's challenging me to think about how my pathetic attempts at becoming a better person were just for show. I wasn't really giving it my all. I was just doing the bare minimum to get recognition for something positive. I'm starting to realize that it's not about recognition or "proving a point." I was just being "lukewarm" about something I should be on fire for.

Memories of the past have been flooding my mind a lot lately. I can't really explain it, but I feel like I have a lesson to learn from all of it. I know it sounds crazy. I know my thoughts are sounding completely crazy right now. I promise you, I am completely sane. But, in a way, I feel like the experiences and memories from my past are starting to come together and teach me one great big lesson..and I'm finally not afraid to learn it. It sounds so off the wall, but I'm beginning to see what the true purpose of my life really is.

It's exciting, because not many people ever really have that feeling. They just go through the motions of life and don't think much about it. You might be reading this and think that I just have too much time on my hands and I'm over-analyzing every aspect of my life. That's ok. I'm starting to see that my life is so much more than just going to work every day and paying my bills. I can bring so much more to this world. I promise you, I will.

Walking walking walking

Wow, I am super exhausted...but the weekend was good. It was nice to have some much-needed relaxation and rest. I actually slept in until 8:30am this morning! I even accomplished a lot this weekend. I went to Toledo with my grandparents yesterday and ordered vertical blinds for a few windows in my house after spending 2 hours getting my hair done. Today I went to church, went for a walk (in the scorching 90 degree heat), and finally unpacked the rest of my stuff and got it all put away. I'd say those are some good accomplishments for one weekend.

The best part of the weekend (as selfish as it sounds) was that I spent it doing what I wanted to do, rather than what someone else wanted me to do. At this point in my life, that makes a good weekend in my book.

My plan for the upcoming week is to get up super early (before it's light out) and do my walks in the AM while it's cooler. I think it'll be nicer to get the walking out of the way before work and not have to worry about it after I get home. This will be especially nice on the days that I'm going to be rushing home from work to make it to jr. high volleyball games. I won't have to worry about forcing myself to exercise after the games are over.

With that said, I've stocked up on energy drinks and mt. dew for this week. If I'm going to be getting up at 5:30 every single day to be able to get out and get my exercise in before work, then I better have something to keep my eyelids open in the evenings or else I will be falling asleep by 6pm. I don't know why I'm such a baby. I wish I was one of those people who could stay up until midnight or later and still get up early in the mornings! Oh well....I'll do the best I can.

To-Do List

As if I'm not busy enough with everything that is going on at work with our transition to EMR, I've been doing a lot of thinking about other things that I would like to accomplish in my lifetime. I feel like I've accomplished a lot to get to where I'm at today, but there are so many more things that I could do and want to do while I am on this earth. You can call it a "bucket list" or a to-do list, but I do feel like I have many more goals to achieve during my lifetime.

Here are a few that I already have in progress:

1. Do a half-marathon. I'm walking it, rather than running it, but I feel like this is an accomplishment that most people do not achieve in their lifetime. I'm doing it for a good cause and I'm getting healthier in the process. I'd say that's an accomplishment.

2. Teach Sunday school at church. I'm going to be teaching the junior high Sunday school class at my church this year. This is a huge feat for me, because I do not like being the leader of discussions, but I'm going to have to step up and do it, and I'm looking forward to the challenge.

3. Join an organization that gives back to the community. I have joined the Lions club (and became an official member this week).

And....(drumroll please) here is my list of other things that I would like to accomplish in my lifetime, in no particular order.

1. write and publish a book (any topic)

2. learn to speak and be fluent in another language

3. travel overseas (to another continent and the bahamas don't count)

4. run a full marathon (yes, I know I'm crazy..but someday I will do this)

5. read the entire Bible

6. open my own business (it doesn't matter if it's a physical therapy clinic or something totally unrelated)

7. sponsor a child (either overseas or right here in town)

8. invent something worthwhile

9. sky dive

10. plant a community garden to donate all of the vegetables grown to those in need of food

That's just a beginning of the things I'm going to work on now that I'm done with school and studying. These are my "life's goals," or at least a start toward them. Maybe these are my "10 year goals" anyway. Wish me luck.

Everything happens for a reason.

Oh goodness, EMR is officially kicking my butt at work. A full day at work would not necessarily be this tiring, but it's pretty safe to say that I would be more than happy to go to bed at approximately 7pm these days if it wasn't still light outside. The transition is actually going pretty well for the most part. There are still a few things that need to be built into the system that make it a bit complicated right now, but overall, I do have to say that it's great that we are transitioning into the 21st century and the basic daily notes ARE a lot faster on the electronic system than they were on the paper system. However, I feel like my brain is fried after two weekly conferences, a full patient caseload, and typing at my laptop all day long. I don't even know how I'm coming up with the energy to type this post, other than I'm trying to distract myself from the reality of going back to work tomorrow and doing all of this over again. This is the first week since I've started that I will be putting in over 50 hours. I know that probably doesn't sound like a whole lot, but I've been going in early every morning and staying late every night. I guess this makes up for those days that I got to leave early when I first started. I won't ever feel bad for leaving work early again...if it ever even happens again.

But...I can't complain. I have a job and so far, it's a secure job. We're super busy, but that's job security at this point. I absolutely need that paycheck every 2 weeks, so bring on the challenges of being super busy at work...I'd rather be this busy and tired than worried sick over whether or not I'm going to be able to pay my bills. I work with a pretty awesome group of people who are all very supportive and helpful. You don't find that just anywhere. I feel so blessed to have this job. I am 100% sure that I made the right decision in accepting this position when it was offered to me. Even though it is stressful right now, sometimes I really don't know what I did to deserve such a great place to work. I will never take this job for granted. As much as I complain (which I shouldn't), I am so happy and thankful for the opportunities I've been given. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and I'm glad that, for the most part, everything is going just fine :)