Single Sentence Sunday!

I know. I know. 2 posts in one day?! Have I gone mad?!

The answer: possibly, but i think not at least :) One of my best friends, Sarah Rogers, just started a new trend: single sentence sunday. She is a terrific writer, and in an attempt to share more of her thoughts in a more concise way, she's started a single sentence post once a week. She has encouraged some of her blog readers to participate. So from now on, I'll be posting every sunday with just one sentence. I just decided to start, so please excuse today's double posts :)

Here's my sentence for the week:

Life is full of pain and darkness, and we can choose to live as if it does not exist, to live a life dwelling in its filth, OR to live to make a difference by loving where there is no love, forgiving where there is no forgiveness, and extending grace to the graceless.

What do you choose?

Mountain Trip

What an amazing few days! Mikey and I got back from Tennessee just last night after spending a few days in the mountains with 16 other members of the core team for Genesis, the college-age ministry we are both involved in. We arrived late Wednesday night, went exploring and laser-tagging on Thursday, went on a crazy mountain hike on Friday, and came home on Saturday. It was a jam-packed few days, and I loved every minute! The whole experience was covered in prayer and a desire to come to know God better (including his role at Genesis and his role in our own lives). Here are a few of the highlights from the trip:

• Discussing the body of Christ. Rodney asked if we would be missed at Genesis, and many of us replied, "hopefully yes but maybe not." Rodney and Oscar both spoke passionately about how important every part of Christ's body is. We can't all be teachers, or encouragers, or listeners, but together, we can all make up Christ's body! We are all replaceable in the sense that God's will is done with or without us, but we are all so important and will be missed as unique and wonderful parts of Christ's body! I also got to bring in a little science knowledge by sharing the Gate Control Theory of Pain and Touch (which says that the same neurons responsible for signaling pain also signal touch, so there is an adaptive reason for covering our wounds. in the same way, the healthy parts of Christ's body should be covering and "touching" with love and encouragement those parts of the body that are injured or in pain!)
• Reading on my own time. I got a couple of hours each day where I snuck away to read a couple of books, as well as reading my Bible. The two books I was reading were So Long Insecurity by Beth Moore and Next Door Savior by Max Lucado. Both books are extremely encouraging, and both reminded me of the importance of finding my worth in God, not in any accomplishments or any person. They also reminded me of the accessibility of God. God became a human being to know what we are going through in this life and to save us from death and pain!
• Talking with some amazing people. I was lucky enough to have a few great conversations with some really great people. I got a chance to catch up with Baillie (an anti-blogger, but don't hold that against her) and Chelsie about married life and all of that good stuff. I also had a lot of great convos with my friend Sarah. She and her husband Billy rode in our car everywhere, so we had plenty of time to talk about lots of things, ranging from our love of knowledge to our favorite things to the importance of communication, etc. I am so blessed to have so many great and encouraging friends around me!
• Having some time with my wonderful husband. Mikey and I have both been incessantly busy for the past couple of weeks, and we enjoyed a much needed respite from the rush of normal life. We got to have a lot of great conversations, and we got to just goof off, enjoying each others' company without the distractions of work and homework around. Mikey is constantly amazing me with his ability to love and to give of himself, and so often I don't even realize it!

Did someone call 911?

Finally, after over a semester of studying, practicing, and dreaming, I am an official, nationally-certified Emergency Medical Technician!! Now, sadly, I am not really making use of said certification because it takes time to find the appropriate life-saving job, but I am hoping to start working at MUSC this summer as a patient care technician. I am also planning to start (hopefully in this upcoming week!) volunteering as a medical assistant at a health clinic in town. Either way, taking the EMT course has solidified by love for medicine and caring for patients! It has been wonderful to get to learn a little more about medicine and about the emergency medical system. I cannot wait to start using this certification to gain some real-life experience, not just classroom experience. Thanks to everyone who has encouraged and supported me in my dreams thus far. Special thanks to my wonderful, loving, and very patient husband!! If not for your willingness to help out and support my work, I wouldn't have gotten even this far...and there are still years to go! I look forward to working together to reach both of our dreams!

This weekend has been so wonderful! :) It started off on Friday night with SNOW...the real kind that actually sticks and can be built into a snowman. Mikey and I went out to his parents' house that night, and we had such a blast having snowball fights, building snowmen, and walking with his family to see how everything familiar looked covered in snow! It was awesome!!

Then on Saturday, Mikey and I celebrated Valentine's day. We just relaxed for most of the day, and then after church, we went to a really fun, new restaurant on IOP (Isle of Palms for all of you non-Charlestonians :D). Well, at least it's new to us :) Our food was great, and it was nice to get to slow down and just enjoying each other's company for a little bit. Then, we went downtown to the Harbor Grill, where we met our friends Oscar and Maria to salsa! We danced for almost two hours straight. It was so fun to try a new style of dance...Mikey and I want to take lessons so we can go back and be AWESOME! :) Haha. Once it got later, the salsa placed turned less salsa-y, so we headed home, where we let Oliver out to play in the snow. It came up to his belly, so he was running really funny trying to keep from touching it. But he seemed to be enjoying himself because he didn't make any breaks to come back inside.

And now it is Sunday, and I am busy studying for my EMT written exam on Monday. By Wednesday, I should know officially if I am a certified emergency medical technician! :) Yay!!

Here's a video of Mikey and couple of his sibs playing in the snow :)

Work It, Girl!

Starting at age 8, I danced ballet. After a few years, I was taking classes or rehearsing 5 days a week, sometimes two classes in one day. That was my only exercise for 10 years. My senior year of high school, my knees starting killing me, and after going to a doctor, I discovered I had developed a lovely thing called Ilio-tibial Band Syndrome, meaning the band that runs from under my knee up to my hip started tightening up too much. In the following physical therapy, I learned that I am physiologically a bit twisted, literally. The bone in the top of my leg doesn't line up straight with the bones in the bottom of my leg, making my knee twist every time I take a step, etc. All of this to say, I stopped dancing (except for a few low-key classes occasionally), and therefore, I stopped working out.

I proceeded to go to college, where I lost weight from walking to classes. Then, I proceeded to move home to get married, where I gained weight from eating more and walking less. I'm back to a little over my high school weight, which isn't a crisis, but I started feeling a little blah, you know? So last week, I made a decision. After almost two years of laziness, broken up by occasional walks, I have decided to get healthy. It is not primarily to get in shape, although that is definitely a contributing factor. Rather, I have decided that I want to be healthy. If I lose a couple of pounds, great, but mainly, I just want to feel like I am taking care of my body. After all, I want to be a doctor...keeping people healthy will one day be my job, so a few bike rides can only increase my integrity in my future profession!

So to get over my fear/hatred of working out, I've decided to change my perspective. Working out is no longer to get in shape (ie to look good)...it is to be healthy. Cardio is good for your heart and the rest of your body. I ride the stationary bike 10.5 miles 3 days a week, and I'm taking yoga at school three other days during the week. Both of these activities are good for my body, my mind, and they're easy on my knees. Plus, working out is a much more productive and positive way to spend my free time. Instead of watching a tv show, I can go to the gym for 30 minutes. And at the end of the day, that feels like a much better way to do things!