hellew

Hello, blogging community. It is still really funny to me every time I get on here and try to summarize my life. HAHA.

I will begin by sharing a near-monumental decision in my life (this is not as much an exaggeration as you might think)... and that is to give up Facebook for Lent. I was not raised in a denomination that observes this particular tradition, and I do not think it is necessary to the Christian life, but I have grown more fascinated with liturgy and other traditions of church history and think they can be quite beneficial when we choose to observe them in a balanced way. Wikipedia has a good summary of Lent in the first three paragraphs here. And quite honestly, not logging into Facebook so much will be a good exercise in self-denial and will free up some time for prayer:) I will likely still log in on my days of Sabbath. It will be a lovely little experiment if nothing else.

In other news, my dear friend Christy is in town and I am LOVING IT. Thanks to my busyness and tiredness I haven't seen as much of her as I would have liked, but we have treasured the times we have had. Last night we got shaved ice from Bahama Buck's (I've never had a strawberry cheesecake flavored anything that was so right on!) and then played some cards. Thanks to Christy's lovely knack for spontaneity and the wonderful hospitality of her sister and brother-in-law, we then proceeded to have the most wonderful camping experience ever put together in five minutes. They already had a fire going in their living room. (Only in AZ would you light a fire in February when it's 60 degrees outside!) We set up the tent, filled up the air mattress inside, and opened the door to watch While You Were Sleeping while eating some Thin Mints and drinking milk. It was splendid!

Here are some things I have learned that I like within the past couple weeks:

• Glory Revealed, a compilation that is WONDERFUL and I highly recommend to anyone who loves God's Word & laid-back song
• The scent IslandHop from GapBody... it is seriously so great
• Guacamole. Oh, no. I never thought I would. But I have overcome the texture barrier because it's just so stinking yummy. And the fact that I can get it free almost every day is very dangerous.
  

Speaking of Gap, Inc. I have some "Give & Get" coupons to send to family & friends so you can get 30% off. If you might want one, let me know and I'll be sure to get it to you. You get 30% off your purchase (some weekend in March, I forget) and 5% goes to benefit a charity. I have tons but probably won't send them at random:)

Also, this particular couple of weeks has been hard for me. I'm getting discouraged about not having a nursing job, getting worried about my finances, starting to fret about my silly thyroid pooping out, and really wondering why God brought me to this state! I humbly ask for your prayers... if you're the praying type:) Thank you.

Desert Foliage Take 2

Now this is more like it... I had a break on Monday. My friend Bonnie has invited me on several hikes, and I haven't been able to make it. But finally- we got to go! It was a perfect day for it if you ask me, cloudy and cool... and we went on a hike with some GREENERY!

hmm

So it turns out I'm really bad at this blogging thing. I should update you more, my readers! There truly isn't much to say, though...

*I was needing to stretch my body and was going to listen to Adventures in Odyssey last night and instead stumbled on a hymn-sing, which I gladly listened to instead! For the first time I remember, I heard “And Can It Be” by Charles Wesley. I think it’s going to be a favorite.

*I have been taking the 10-week membership class and spending more time with people at church. The gospel, and their gospel-centeredness, is amazing to me!! Yet I am still not sure about whether I will join. I am not sure if there are things that I need to get over, or whether I should start looking for another church. They are not doctrinal/theological issues. One of my trouble spots is that it is 20 minutes away, in the OPPOSITE direction from the city, in a very suburban area. This is just not where I pictured myself or thought I wanted to be. Things like this. I don’t want to say anything against this church. It has been a blessing from God to me in these days. So also, I don’t want to stay here just because it is comfortable and safe.

*There is still not much happening in life. I am busier, with work and church activities and the everydays of “keeping up” my own place, but there is no exciting news.

*The most exciting news is that 11 New Grad opportunities with BannerHealth were just posted, and I applied to them all! After talking with HR at one of those hospitals, I found out I was under review for regular nursing jobs, so I'm hoping that something will happen!

*Much has been going up and down in the way of travel plans for the next few months. A lot of it will depend on if and when I acquire nursing employment. But I had planned a trip to see Bee & Gramps and also a trip home in the next month and then had to face the fact that these would not be wise right now! I am still planning on going home in May when Kimmie gets married! (and am still hoping for another trip before then!) And I will get to see Crystal when she comes here for her Spring Break in March! And next week my friend Christy will be in town visiting her sister so I will see her! And I hope to have a trip to Bee & Gramps in the summer, and also a trip to NY for my cousin Joy’s graduation to see Dad’s side of the family, hopefully both of those with my family.

*Please pray for my friend who has a young son and recently had surgery to remove a tumor on her thyroid. They found that the cancer was not contained to her thyroid, and her battle is not over yet.

*I spent way too much time on facebook looking for pictures of the Winter Retreat with church. (I, of course, brought extra batteries for my camera, but forgot my camera!) I hear that fb’s privacy policy allows this. (So be careful what you post there!)

the "assembly room" We had 4 teaching sessions and also (part of) an Olympiad in this room. Part of this was trying to get 7 of us balanced on one cinder block. I guess that's called team building.
I took this picture. Of the other 8 folks at my breakfast table. Chris, Hannah, Stephanie, Mike, Bonnie, Jennifer, Amanda, and Adam. They are cool kids.

my new friend Jenna. She rode up with me and we talked about books and ate chocolate mint cookies.

The path leading from the cabins to the dining hall. We got about 25 minutes of hiking per meal.

My cabin. It had a wood stove to keep us warm... aaaaah, loving the need for that in AZ.

Currently reading: Una Mujer que Conforme al Corazon de Dios (A Woman After God's Own Heart) by Elizabeth George and Why the Rest Hates the West by Meic Pierce
Currently listening to: Give Up by the Postal Service and This is Our God by Hillsong and THE FRAY (self-titled album-- it's new-- I like it a lot:)