My head has finally stopped spinning. . .

from the news. J lost his job last week. So if you know of any bioinformaticist jobs in H-town, we'd be interested to find out about them.

Our big struggle right now is not money. Thankfully, God has provided me with a steady job, and since people keep getting sick, it's pretty much secure. Our struggle now is with how to pray.

J needs specific working conditions for his job, and I love to ask God specific prayers. Otherwise, how can we be certain there is an answer from God? However, as I was reminded by a wise Christian woman, I don't want to pray myself into a corner. How do you pray specifically without doubting God? How do you pray for what you want but be open to God's movement in my life?

If I do that, I do feel that I am not praying in faith, but rather in doubt. Like "if you can't make J's job in H-town, I guess we can move." Although I'm not saying those words, I feel like they're part of the prayer.

Anyway, I'm not ready to move from this town, from my church, from my friends, and from my work. But we may be asked to do that soon. Please petition God on our behalf for a good job for J where he's happy and productive, wherever that may be. We're waiting on some information from his former boss, and then we'll be able to get his resume out, right into the hands of people who need to hire him.

Thank you for your prayers and thoughts. We appreciate it all.

Happy Anniversary

On this day, 8 years ago, I married a wonderful man, who has become a wonderful husband to me.

To comemorate this wonderful day, I have come up with 8 things I love about my sweet husband:

1. You listen to me go on (and on and on) about things that could not possibly interest you on their own, but they interest me, so you let me share my excitement.

2. You laugh at my corny jokes.

3. You understand how important Girl Time is for me, and you don't grumble about being left alone.

4. You keep me fed. I would be up a creek if you weren't my cook. Remember, I can't even make a grilled cheese sandwich!

5. We share the same dreams.

6. You have come to understand that my defination of "clean" and your defination of "clean" are different, and you've adjusted accordingly. Thanks!

7. You are a romantic at heart.

8. You love Scrubs and we laugh at all the silly Scrubs things together.

I love you now until forever. Happy Anniversary!

What do you have?

Yesterday I was teaching a high school student. It was very interesting to teach someone who had NO IDEA about what I do. She wanted to see if she wanted to be a Physician Assistant when she grows up. So she followed me around all day to see if she could do what I do.

When last I taught a student, it was a PA student at the end of her rotations, and she was quite competant in seeing patients. So I am used to that level of comfort with patients. Yesterday, I was being followed by someone who is about 7 years behind the first one in school. It was quite an attitude shift for me.

If you have someone following you around all day, it opens your eyes to what you do, how you do it, and what you say about and to people. At least it did to me.

Teaching others opens my eyes to my own weaknesses, my failings, my short comings, and my strengths. It is a good time to evaluate what I really know, and what I just take for granted, because that's what I have always known.

Teaching others also opens my eyes to all that I know, and all that I have soaked up in 29 years on this planet. It reminds me of all that I learned, all the trouble I took to learn things, and how excited I was when it all "clicked" in my brain.

Teaching my two students reminded me that we all have something to offer, something to teach others. These two women certainly taught me plenty in the time we were a team.

So, on that note, what do you have that you can teach others? Bible knowledge? Career know-how? Home-y activities? Child raising tips? What advice do you have in your brain that you can share with me? The possibilities are unlimited.

Be sure and teach others. Your wisdom will inspire others to reach and grow, to try something new. And learn from others. We all stand on the shoulders of giants.

And on a related note, can someone tell me why my paragraphs aren't showing up when I publish the post, but they're there when I write it? What am I doing wrong!!

Everything I need to know, I learned from racket ball

As mentioned in a previous post, I played racket ball with my parents and husband this weekend. I write blogs in my mind all the time, and this one I thought may be worth posting.

We were in Academy the other day, and I saw this wonderful pink bag that I had to have. Look at the wonderful racket detail. It's got flowers! J said he'd love to play with me, but my excuse is, I've had no stuff to play with. No more! So now that I have a cute pink bag with a cute pink racket, cute pink glasses, cute blue balls, and a cute white glove, I hit the courts. I love Academy. And here's what I thought about while in the court, dodging balls and laughing with my mom.

EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW, I LEARNED FROM RACKET BALL

1. Work as a Team: Although I think racket ball was meant to be an individual sport, it can be made into a team sport, even if there's only two people playing. Take turns. Share. One person doing all the hitting gets worn out really fast, and the other person is bored. You can't keep that pace up for long. But you can play much longer when you work as a team.

2. Give Other People the Benefit of the Doubt: I'm SURE my mother, the sweet lady that she is, didn't mean to smack me in the neck when she was fielding that ball from behind me. Likewise, I need to remember that other people have issues that may have nothing to do with their current actions. When people don't feel well, they don't act nicely. And we don't always know what's going on with the woman who just cut me off in traffic. So say a prayer, and wave nicely.

3. You Don't Have to Keep Score:The problem with playing some certain sports with boys is they like to keep score. Ruthlessly. My mother and I played for a hour without keeping score once. Did we have fun? Yes. Get exercise? Yes. In life, there are multiple opportunities to keep score. Don't. Thankfully, God doesn't keep score for us, and we should extend that benefit to those who are travelling this road with us.

4. Communicate: Adequate communication helps us all figure out what's going on. So two people don't go for the same target, sports players often tell their teammates what their intentions are. We should be so transparent at work and at home. Meetings go better when agendas are acknowledged to begin with. Chatting with one's spouse or friends strengthens bonds. Use your words.

4B: Encourage Each Other: Most communication, 90% of it, should be positive. You will be known by your words. Make them sweet. You can speak truth gently. Do so.

5. Use All Your Equipment: I started the racket ball game without my racketball glove on. I thought it made me look like Michael Jackson. I'm not used to sporting just one glove. But my shots were wild. All over the place. The racket was twisting in my hand when I hit the ball. I put on my glove, and viola! My shots were still wild and all over the place, but it had less to do with the racket twisting and more to do with poor technique. Why would you go through life without all your equipment? God's been there. He's been here. He knows. We are told that the Bible has everything we need for life and Godliness. For life. Why would you have this wonderful resource and not use it? Daily.

6. Be Flexible: Wow! My mom can move fast when there's a racket-ball-missile fired at her (by her daughter). We found out that both of us can contort into previously unknown and untried positions when we had to. Take that flexibility into your home. Eat pizza when the cauliflower burns to the bottom of a pot. Have breakfast at IHOP when a car accident ruins your chance at a good berry picking. Don't nix things just because we've never done it that way. Sometimes we can come up with wonderful outcomes if we just try new things.

7. Laugh: Laughter can cover alot of error. Don't be afraid to laugh at yourself. In fact, you should be the first to laugh when you did something humorous. Enjoy the laughter. It's good exercise. And enjoy a good, clean joke.

8. Drink Lots of Water: enough said

9. Say Sorry When You Hurt Someone: It's the little things that make society nice. It could be a car accident, a stray word, an angry outburst. Say you're sorry. It doesn't make you less of a person to admit fault. In fact, it makes you more. More compassionate, more full of a gentle and humble spirit, more like God.

9B: Right Wrongs. Give a hug when you nail someone with a ball. As much as you can, fix what you broke. Lamps are easy. Feelings are not.

10. Never Look Back: In racket ball, you are NOT allowed to look back. You'll shoot your eye out (said in a nasally 1970s voice a la The Chrismas Story). Or someone else will take your eye out. Not a great idea. The last time I played racket ball, my dad gave me a great lecture about Don't Turn Around, etc, etc. Um, let's just say I learn better from object lessons, and I left the court with quite a mark on my forehead. Just the size of a racketball ball. In Narnia, Lucy asked Aslan (who by the way is a stand in for God, just in case you missed that symbolism), "If I had trusted you, would the battle in the castle still have happened (that caused the deaths of many Narnian fighters)?" Aslan shook his head and said, "We will never know what may have happened. Let's just concentrate on what is." (Or something to that effect. The real movie line is better.) What's done is done. We can't undo the past. But we can trust God and allow His hand and guidance to lead our future. That is really the only way to live. With our eyes fixed on the Author and Perfector of our lives. Looking forward. Never back to the life we left, but with anticipation to what is to come, both here and beyond this world. I can't wait.

So, this is what I think about when I play racket ball. Who's up for a game?

HBD to ME!!

I check this blog every once in a while and I think, "oh, no one's updated the blog." Duh. It's mine. Who else would update it?

So, this weekend I celebrated my birthday with my wonderful family in Big-D. We were up there for graduation, and it was easy to do lots of celebrating with the family. We did the traditional dinner and a movie for the birthday person - Bennigans and Prince Caspain, respectively for me. (A quick aside, Prince Caspian was very bloodless for all the fighting it had in it. I always forget how savage Narnia can be. More on that later.) We played racketball together, well, girls on a court and guys on a court. Guys can be too, well, guy-ish when it comes to playing sports. I met some of my parent's new friends on Saturday and Sunday. It was wonderful getting to sleep in for a few days and get some projects done.

We also worked on a wonderful idea of mine (if I can say an idea of mine is wonderful). I love family history, and we're losing alot of it all the time. All my grandparents have passed away, and my family has lost alot of that history. So, my mother and I spent untold hours this weekend photographing family treasures. We'll assemble the photos into a book with what family history we know. I plan on printing a book for my mother, my sister-in-law, and myself. We'll be getting these treasures one day, and I love knowing where I come from. So anyway, that will be my next project to get this off the ground.

It was a good weekend, and I have more to post about it, but I am hungry and I have to go to the grocery store before I can eat (I know, I know).