Summer 2012 Recap

It’s hard to believe another summer has come and gone already. My summer FLEW by…Tomorrow (yes, I said tomorrow!), I start my 2^nd semester of nursing school. The super good part of all this is—I’m one step closer to being done (and I mean DONE!) with school…FOREVER!

I had a good summer, but I spent a lot of time working. Nursing school is quite expensive, so I had my fair share of 13 and 15 hour days spent at the nursing home. (For the record, I did work 8 & 9 hour days like a normal person, too…) My weekends off were spent with the people I love, which often involved driving…to other states J

While my parents and sister were in Romania for 2 weeks, I was in Wisconsin with Thomas and Neva. It was so nice to be off work during that time AND actually be at home. (It would have been nice if the rest of my family was there…)

Late in July {while I was home}, I got a phone call informing me that I was getting a scholarship for the fall—in the amount of $1,000!!! This particular scholarship was through my employer, and I was so excited to get this news…I had been praying and hoping and planning that it would work out like this. Fall tuition is paid in full, and (thankfully!) I’m still debt-free…at least for one more semester. So thankful God provided in this way!

During the time I was home, Taylor G., Thomas, Kaydie, Neva and I spent the day in Duluth. We spent most of the day at Gooseberry Falls, then headed to Canal Park for some mini-golf. Neva beat us all, and we didn’t give her an advantage! By this time, we were getting pretty hungry, so we headed to Grandma’s for supper. All in all, it was just a fun, relaxing day…I love any time I can spend in the Duluth area and this was no exception!

I also went kayaking for the first time this summer, and would like to go again! We only spent a couple of hours on the water, but it was a good time…

 “The Great Biking Adventure”…that just might be its own post!

I wanted to spend one more weekend with Micah before school started, and I was able to go to Indiana last weekend. We had a good time, and it’s only 2 weeks until I see him again! J It was nice to have my last little excursion before another crazy semester kicks in…and with that, summer 2012 has come to a close!

Sunday in Romania

On Wednesday, July 25^th, a group of 26 people (21 teens and 5 adults) left to serve with the Groza family in Romania. They arrived in Fagaras, Romania, on Thursday night, and hit the ground running on Friday morning! It’s been so exciting to hear bits and pieces of what they have been doing.

This morning in church, we were able to see (via live video stream), the evening church service in Fagaras, Romania. (Isn’t technology wonderful?!) It was great to be able to see our group, and also to see some of the people they have been so graciously welcomed by.  Romania is 8 hours ahead of us, but I did get a quick phone call in to my mom this afternoon. She told me a little bit about their day: Both morning and evening church services in Romania are 2 hours long. My mom said they both went by very quickly. Between morning and evening church, they went to some villages and held church services there. Many of the children in the villages have lice, and lice are a very real possibility for the people in our group as well. Pray for our group, my mom included, that they would be persuaded to love on these kids, without being concerned about the possibility of lice.

 At one point during the evening service, the teens were singing in English while everyone else sang in Romanian. Getting to hear this on the video feed was incredible—singing in 2 different languages at the same time knowing we serve the same God…does it get better than that?!

Please continue to pray for the 21 teens and 5 adults we have in Romania. I’m praying that God will use them for His glory. I pray everyone will come back with a new perspective of how big God is and see the importance of being a bold witness for Jesus, whether you’re in Fagaras, Romania or Chetek, WI. 

In the last 14 months...

I’ve become another one of those lovely people that makes a blog and then never updates it! Here’s a post that will bring you up-to-speed on everything that’s happened in the last 14 months! Ok, not really at all…but if you’re interested in my most recent ramblings, read on J

The last time I blogged was back in May…of 2011! I had just graduated from Heartland Community College with a 2 year degree, and was stressed to the max. (There were several factors involved, but we won’t go into all that…) To sum it up for you, I was ready to quit school (indefinitely) and move back home. So, the day after I walked across the stage at HCC, I moved back home for the summer. At that point, I had been accepted into the nursing program at ISU (which is exactly what I wanted), but had no intentions of actually moving back to Illinois and going back to school. My parents, among others, knew I would move back to Illinois and go to school, but I did NOT know that yet J

My summer at home was awesome, and it was exactly what I needed. I learned so much during those couple of months, and decided to move back to Illinois J In late July {2011}, I applied for several CNA jobs in Illinois; I got hired at Apostolic Christian Restmor and started in the beginning of August. I was looking for a full-time job, and they hired me at 24-30 hours a week. Initially, I wasn’t too thrilled about that because I desperately needed more hours. However, Restmor was offering more hours than the other places that called, so I took the job. The Lord had that all worked out, too, because I got full-time hours the very first week! Those hours continued until I started school again in January, which allowed me to gain valuable work experience and save money.

Last fall flew by! I was working full-time, enrolled in one online class, and was busy with weekend trips home and to Indiana. If you don’t why I was going to Indiana, I’ll gladly fill you in J (In the future, I’ll have to blog about my very first trip to Indiana…)

In January {2012}, I started nursing school at Mennonite College of Nursing @ ISU. I was completely petrified. You’ve all heard the horror stories about nursing school—no sleep, no social life, nothing but homework, everyone fails. Basically, it’s like torture that you’re paying a lot of money for! And some of it’s true—nursing school has a way of taking over your life! Now that 1^st semester is over, I can say this: It was the most challenging semester of school I’ve ever had, and I absolutely loved it! It was a lot of work, a lot of studying, a lot of late nights and a lot of early mornings, but at the end of the day: it’s manageable…and fun J

I’ve now lived in Illinois for 3 whole years, which just seems crazy. I still miss living in Wisconsin, and part of me always will—it’s where I grew up, and my family is still here.  Maybe I’ll live here again someday?

One more thing—Please pray for me! I start school again in less than a month, and am still waiting to hear back about 2 more scholarships for the fall semester. I’m trusting God with the outcome—of how tuition will get paid, and with everything else. 

HCC Graduation

I'm officially a college graduate...with a 2 year degree that gets me absolutely nowhere! But hey, now I have this cool piece of paper to show for all the work I've done over the past 2 years...Oh, well. I'm half way through my college career...at least for now.

Adventures in April

I’m not very good at this whole blogging thing, considering it’s been over a month since I posted anything…but I’m going to use this crazy thing called school as my excuse. It has been totally and completely insane! I *thought* this would be an easy semester since I’m only taking 13 credits, but it didn’t work quite like I had planned. Fortunately, I just have 1 more paper to write and 3 more finals to take. The end is FINALLY in sight!

If you’re easily grossed out or are eating right now, you may not want to read the rest of this…consider yourself warned J Believe it or not, this actually happened. (Yes, I really do have a gift for awkward situations, and this was no exception.)

Random: Last Thursday, I was going to throw some laundry in…and there was a loaf of bread on the floor. One side of the bag was all shredded, but I thought we had a mouse (or more likely, mice) in the house, which has happened before. That didn’t concern me that much since I’m an expert mouse killer J (You may or may not remember how I “took care of” the last mouse I found.) We put out some mouse traps and proceeded with our day, not really giving it a second thought.

That same Thursday, I headed home for the weekend. The time went by way too fast, just like it always does…maybe I’ll have to blog about the craziness in watching 4 kiddos plus Neva, but I’ll save that for another time.

Anyway…I got back to IL on Sunday night. While I was carrying my stuff downstairs, I smelled something horrible…like, really disgusting. I put my backpack on the couch, but when I walked into bedroom…There was poop (literal crap) all over the carpet. So I quickly picked up my backpack and went back upstairs.

Next, I called my mom to find out what in the world I’m suppose to do…and I was obviously completely and totally hysterical at this point. Can you blame me?! (At this point, Grandpa wasn’t home yet.) So I’m sitting in a house by myself with some sort of animal poop on my bedroom floor. When Grandpa got home, he obviously had no idea what was downstairs. Mom had called him to make sure he would be home soon, and filled him in on this “situation”. Once he got back, we cleaned up what we could of the whole mess. We got a piece of something (plywood?) and put it in front of the steps, hoping that this mystery animal would be stuck downstairs. We also put a live trap down there. Grandpa got a flashlight and was looking under/around everything downstairs…and I was on the other side of the plywood! We decided to shut my bedroom door and bathroom door because we were pretty certain that “it” was not in either of those places.

 I started carrying my stuff upstairs (to the main level) because I couldn’t leave it downstairs in a basement that smelled like crap! J

So…I didn’t sleep well Sunday night because we had some sort of wild animal in the house, and it obviously did not belong! Monday came and went, with no sign of the animal. But that all changed on Tuesday J

Grandpa had been in the garage, and when he came in the house, he saw a gray tomcat dart right under his desk (which is in the green room). So, he picked up this metal pipe-thing and was ready to whack it…but it wasn’t under his desk, even though he had just seen it run under there. This cat had taken the register out, and run straight down! Now, we know it’s cat, and we know where it went…but we don’t know where else it can get to or how to get it back out…

When I got home from school, Grandpa tells me that it’s a cat. I thought he meant he had caught the cat, and that it was no longer in the house…but that’s not how it went. So, we shut the door to the green room, and carried in another door to block the 2^nd doorway in the green room. We also put the live trap in there, hoping that eventually he would get hungry and come out the same way.

Tuesday night came and went, but he still hadn’t been caught. (I did sleep better that night because there are no vents in the room I was in.)

Finally, Wednesday morning about 7, the cat got hungry and went in the trap! WE CAUGHT HIM…and that was the end of him! J

Making cookies :)

This afternoon, Neva and I were making cookies. She had been a  good helper, and was eager to eat the chocolate chip cookies, which are her favorite. I let her have 2 while we were getting them baked. Before I put the last batch in the oven...

Neva: I need to eat 1 more cookie.
Me: No, you've had 2. That's enough for now.
Neva: No, this is my 3rd 1 (as she holds up a half-eaten cookie). Three is a very bad number, so I need to eat 1 more. Four is a good number...it's my favorite number.
Me: Ok, wait a few minutes.

2 minutes go by (and I'm going crazy)

Neva: I need 1 more cookie...cuz 4 is a good number, and I've only had 3. Please let me have one more.
Me: Ok, but this is the last one.
Neva: Oh, thank you! Four is a good number.

So I gave her the 4th cookie! :)

Recent Happenings

It’s been over a month since I updated my blog, but I’m not sure if anyone reads this anyway, so perhaps it doesn’t matter?! O well. J

I was on spring break last week, and got to spend 7 whole days at home. Talk about FABULOUS! To kick off my break, I met up with the rest of my family in the Dells. We stayed at the Wilderness Resort. The place was HUGE, and had 3 different waterparks. It’s my favorite place that we’ve ever stayed because there was so much to do.

We also celebrated Emma’s 15^th birthday on Tuesday.  On her birthday, I picked up lunch at DQ and ate at school with her and her friends. That night, Katelyn, Marissa, Emma, and I went to see Gnomeo and Juliet. I loved that movie, and would go see it again! It was a stinkin’ cute movie J Katelyn and Emma’s birthday is the same day, and we had some DQ cake to finish off the night.

The rest of the week consisted of a lot of shopping, eating, and talking. I got back to Illinois on Sunday night, and I’m already anxious for this semester to be over. Neva and I will be in Wisconsin all summer, and it cannot come soon enough!

My life is still crazy, just in case you were concerned it suddenly became “normal”. Here’s a couple “funnies” that have happened since…yesterday J

Neva and I met up with Grandma Judy for lunch at Avanti’s, my fav. Once we finished eating, I gave Neva a piece of gum, sugar-free of course! When we were in the parking lot, Neva gets this weird look on her face, and here’s what went down:

Neva: My gum is stuck under my tooth.

Me: Let me see.  

Neva: I can’t get it.

So I grabbed the gum, and pulled the partial out with it. Neva just giggled like she does. I put her teeth back in, and we went on our way. Needless to say, we got some weird looks from other people in the parking lot. I didn’t think about it at the time, but it probably did look strange J

While Neva and I were walking the lane (for the 2^nd time) this morning:

Neva: My knee hurts real bad

Me: Which knee?

Neva: The left one.

Once we got back to the house (approximately 5 minutes later):

Me: How does your knee feel?

Neva: My knee is fine.  

Me: Does it hurt at all?

Neva: No, not even a little bit. Does your knee hurt?

And there you have it...