I have been inspired!!

So today I was scrolling through Pinterest {typical} and I came across this blog. I am completely and totally inspired! This woman instead of celebrating her birthday the typical way, she decided to do 38 random acts of kindess for her 38th birthday!

How awesome does that sound?! Pretty awesome to me! Well this is what I really want to do for my next birthday! I normally always have a huge get together, but I didn't want that this year, so looks like I found my idea :)


<3 <3 <3

The effects of an exhausted college student

Being tired all the time is nothing new to me. 

Since school has started, sleep has been the least of my priorities. This is the picture that is hung up in one of our hallways at school that pretty much defines how college is. I will always choose a social life over sleep. So the effects were made known yesterday. 

 

Yesterday I had clinicals. So I started my day off at 4:30am getting up, showering, and getting ready for the day. I also had to finish some paperwork so I had to get up a little earlier. I have clinicals from 7am-2pm. I typically get there early though! If you are late or don't show up more than once you can fail, so I always leave time to be late. Plus it's a 45 minute drive. 

At clinicals though, I had the opportunity to witness to a guy. He was telling me how recently just got his life right with God, and was doing some searching. He had told me about all the crazy things that had happened in his life and how he kept refusing to accept God. But finally one day he was seriously scared of dying and felt that this was the time He needed to have God in his life and just turn everything over to Him. It was ironic because I had done my devotion earlier that morning on  

Romans 8:17-18 

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 

1 Peter 1:6-7  

All of these verses talk about how no matter what kind of suffering we go through on earth, NOTHING compares to what is coming and what God will give us in Heaven. So I went on to share these verses with him. He was so thankful that we had met and he knew it was part of  God's purpose because he needed to hear these things. It was seriously such an encouragement!!  

Anyways... after clinicals I am ALWAYS dead tired! So I got home around 3pm and decided to watch a show (Hawaii five-0). I watched about half of it and my mom needed to do some work in the room I was in so I decided to pause my show and go clean the kitchen. After cleaning the kitchen I finished my show and decided a nap sounded lovely. So I fell asleep around 5pm. My dad came home a little after 6 and tried waking me up (I do not do well with people waking me up from a nap1) so that did not go over well, and I went upstairs and went back to bed. I woke up around 8pm to a phone call from my boyfriend and talked to him for a bit and went right back to bed. I woke up two other times in the middle of the night to my mom asking me to take my dog out, but besides that I finally woke up again at 8:15 this morning. Holy cow right?!  

I slept for 15 hours!!!  So in other words I was definitely sleep deprived! So today is a good and rested day.  Plus I started my day off right 

 

Now off to study for my lovely nursing quiz tomorrow! Say a prayer for me!! <3 

The weekend + Monday

So what was exciting about my weekend? Well let me tell you :)

I know I know, blogging twice in one day? I write my own rules and I think I can blog as many times as I want.

Thursday- I had nursing class from 8-2. Yeah it was exactly how it sounds, awful. Ha. After we got out of class my friend and I went to the library to start our care plans that we have to do from our clinicals. We spent a little time doing that, then decided to go over to another one of my friend's house to hang out and do our homework there {which is never a good idea}

While we we there we realized there were 7 nurses/potential nurses in that house! Which we thought was pretty awesome. We also decided at one point to practice starting an IV. Three of us are in our second semester of nursing and another one is in her first, with the rest of them being nurses. For us in school, we aren't allowed to do IVs until our final semester and even then our first time ever giving an IV will be on a patient since it is no longer legal to do it on each other.

So we sat at the kitchen table and took turns inserting these little butterfly catheters{see picture below} that are used to draw blood into each other. This was so awesome and yet so crazy at the same time! I was sweating I was so nervous!!  But it was so fun and I didn't even leave a bruise so kudos to me :)

Friday- It consisted of working from 12-6pm. Then my family, boyfriend, and I all went to outback for dinner {which was amazing might I add} Then my boyfriend and I went to Kohl's to shop for a bit and pay our charge card. So the only picture I have from this day is one of the shirts my boyfriend decided to buy. {if you know him you will totally understand} He is just a goof ball!

 

Saturday- It consisted of working from 9-4. This day was difficult! I had got 3 hours of sleep Wednesday, and 5 hours of sleep on Thursday and Friday, and I felt it! I am in customer service so not having adequate sleep is never a good thing! I decided my customer service was at about a 6 out of 10 that day! All day all I could think of was getting home and sleeping! So that is what I did! I walked in the door, walked straight to the couch {it was closer than my bed} and fell asleep! That night I also went over to my boyfriends and hung out but nothing exciting happened there either, we just took a nap!  

Sunday- I love Sundays, mainly because I love church. This past Sunday was our church's 30th anniversary so we had two special speakers that morning and at night. It was so awesome! If they post the podcast online I will make sure to share it!  

Also on Sunday in between services my boyfriend and I went over to his brother and sister and laws house. I loved this. I got to spend time with some of my favorite people, drink coffee, and work on my blog. {And also beat my boyfriend in fantasy football might I add}. I hadn't had a coffee in a while and I was craving one like crazy on Saturday too, so I decided I needed one on Sunday.  

I need to add a picture of this coffee so you get the idea of how amazing it was.  

 

It is huge. Yes I did by a large, and loved every minute of it. I am pretty sure it took me the entire time in between church services to drink it too! It was taking so long I had to warm it up at one point because it got so cold. But yeah Sunday was absolutely lovely and I ended a lovely day with Chipotle, which makes everything better! 

Now today...Monday- Today I woke up feeling so rested which typically never happens so this made for a lovely morning! While I was getting ready I decided to find a message on Youtube to listen to while getting ready so I chose... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBhqrtMqrv8 You definitely need to check it out. It talks about being a lukewarm christian. 

10:30am- I had my religion class which was very good as always! 

11:20am- starts my 3 hour break. This typically lasts for forever but today it went super fast.  

I started with doing my devotion 

I am starting She Reads Truth. A friend of mine had inspired me plus I needed a good devotion to start anyways so I decided why not :) So we started in Galatians. If you need a devotion you should try it! Today is the first day :) http://shereadstruth.com/ <<< all the information  

Next I tried to study for my Nutrition test on Wednesday 

...that didn't go so well though. I get distracted easily. Plus religion is really boring.  

Next I attempted to read a book for religion... 

 

My teacher introduced this book to us by saying "this is one of the most boring books you will ever read and you will definitely hate it" So this didn't go so well either. I made a cute bookmark though for it :)  

I also had another one of those HUGE coffees that I got on the way to school because what other better way is their to start a Monday off right but with a devotion and a coffee :)  

Then I got lunch before my 2:30 English class. I wanted to emphasize this because going to lunch here is a pain in the butt.  Let me explain >>>  

This is about halfway down the hallway that we have to go down to get to the cafeteria. It is like a wind tunnel too! You can't walk either way without feeling like a fan is right in front of you? It also makes for an awkward walk to lunch because you have to pass people over and over again where you see them from a long distance away and don't know if you should look at them from a distance or when they get closer. I am sure you all know what I mean :) 

Anyways...that is a sum of my weekend and my Monday so far! 

What a true friend really is.

What really is a true friend? 

Since I have graduated high school and am now in my second year of college, I am faced with finding out who in my life are friends that I will continue to have and which people I called friends were only in my life for a season. 

I think a lot of people that make the transition from high school to college face this, as well as people who go from being single to being married { I am sure there are other transitions as well where people face this same issue}. 

Some background info:

I for one have had to do this for myself. In high school I had a class of around 30 people. We were all friends for the most part and spent the majority of our high school years together. My school, K-12, consisted roughly of about 500 people. That is small. So the whole high school pretty much knew each other.   

In high school I was a cheerleader and also played volleyball and softball, so I had a lot of different friends. Some friends were people you hung out with while you were playing that sport and not really any other time. Other friends were friends that I hung out no matter what season it was. 

Anyways... I want to get to my point. 

Since I am now in college, I don't have the time I used to have in high school. Back then, all I did was hang out with friends every day and I didn't have a care in the world. High school was never hard for me so studying occupied very little of my time. Because of this, I gave all of my time to my friends and they did the same. 

This is not the case now. If you have been or are in college you know how time consuming it can be. I am in nursing school too, which makes things even crazier. Plus I have a boyfriend and I work. I also commute, so that adds on a whole other basket of priorities {taking care of my dog, helping out around the house, babysitting my little brother, and keeping my room up to my parents idea of cleanliness}. If you are not in college and are married then you have the same busy schedule {if you have a child then you have all the responsibilities of that, to tend to your house, to tend to your husband, to cook, to clean, etc}. Basically there is just never enough time. Plus when you add church on 3 times a week and any other activity that you may do, time really isn't even there anymore it seems like. 

I am sure a lot of people can relate to this. It isn't that you don't want to have time for your friends, but you just don't a lot of the time. This is a problem for some people. This is also where I have come to realize who is a genuine friend and who really doesn't understand what that means. 

I was talking to a good friend of mine the other day about "spoon fed friends". If you don't know what I am talking about let me elaborate. Spoon fed friends are the kind of friends that demand of your attention all the time and when they don't get it, they get upset. It may not even be all the time that they ask of your time but when they do and you just don't have the time, they get angry with you for not giving them time. 

This is something I struggle with, a lot {especially since I used to give my friends ALL of my time}. Monday-Thursday I focus on school for the most part. I am at school each one of those days and at night I focus on studying, helping out around the house, and taking care of my dog (she needs a lot of attention). Then on Friday and Saturdays I work. Sundays I choose to go to church at 10:30am and at 7pm. So that leaves Friday night after 6:30, Saturday night after 4:30, and Sunday in between services to do with what I please. That is practically no time at all in my eyes. 

During those few times where I can decide what I want to do, I typically fill it with spending time with my boyfriend and his family {which contains some of my best of friends}. So as you can see finding time is hard. 

That is why I must evaluate what a true/genuine friend is. I don't think a friend is someone you hang out with all of your spare time, or someone that you keep in constant contact with or even someone that you see often.

I think a real friend is someone that you love. You love them for who they are and the potential you see in them.  It is someone you don't have to see all the time, or keep in contact with all the time but you know they are always there for you when you need them. They are the kind of person that would come running if you needed help. It is someone that encourages you when you need encouraged. It is someone that makes you want to be a better person. It is someone that prays for you. It is someone that can go days, months, or years without seeing or talking to them and it is like you had seen them yesterday. It is someone you love unconditionally, no matter what they do. It is someone you care about, and they care about you. 

I think people have lost site of what being a true friend is. You don't have to spend time with them all the time to best friends. Instead, it is someone that when you do see them {even if it isn't very often} you don't treat them any differently, and you cherish the moments you spend together. You don't demand criteria for them to be your friend, but instead you demand nothing.  

This is the kind of friend I want to be and the kind of friends I want to have. Someone that loves, cares, and wants and encourages me to be a better person. Someone that I don't have to spend a lot of time with to define our friendship. Someone I want to spend time with as often as I can, but understand when life just doesn't it allow it at times.  

I can say that I have had friends in my life that were only there for a season. BUT, I can also say that I have some amazing girls in my life that I cherish with all of my heart and I know God has placed them in my life for a reason. These girls are real, genuine, true friends that I plan on being friends with the rest of my life. 

So I challenge you to examine yourself and the people around you. Don't waste time on people that demand stipulations to be your friend but invest time in people that don't demand anything at all. And  challenge yourself to be that kind of friend to someone else.  

What has been going on lately :)

Well here is a little update on life :)  ....at least the moments I have pictures of!

Well for starters... a couple weeks ago one my lovely friends and I decided to make cupcakes. What for you ask? No reason. Nope, no reason at all. So these are the final products! It was weird though, we had to like force people to take them. I promise they were good though! It got me in the mood to bake that's for sure. I can't wait for the next birthday in either my family or my boyfriends so I can bake :) I absolutely love baking! Now cooking, that is another story! ha!

  

I also have spent some time babysitting this little cutie pie! Isn't he just adorable? :) I think so! He was an angel too! This is my boyfriend's nephew Xavier.  

Such a sweetheart!! 

 

Cheezin on his box :)

 

I love this picture ^^ He sat like this for quite some time just chillin watching Bubble guppies!   

This is a picture from when I shadowed at Bethesda North. I had the chance to shadow a few times this past summer on the labor and delivery floor and let me tell you THAT, is what I want to do! Since the nurses knew I was a student at Kettering during the school year, they actually let me help! One time I even got to hold the baby right after he was born and help the nurse with the assessment then hand him to his daddy. This is exactly what I want to do. I wasn't sure going into it the first time, but after only a few hours, I just knew. 

  

Also, since I am back in school we have got new uniforms!! This was a very exciting moment for my class because if you had our uniforms before they were absolutely hideous!! So these are the new ones and I love them so much

 (especially since they are navy blue)!

And I can't finish without having a picture of my baby! 

For some reason she loved this baseball? I have no idea why since she couldn't even fit her mouth 

around it since it is so big compared to her! 

 

Anyways....there are some random things that have been going on in my life :)  

<3 

Life as I know it...at the moment

I haven't blogged in forever.

My life has changed since the last time I blogged. I am now back in nursing school and being as busy as a bee. A little glance of my life:

My schedule at the moment 
Monday:        - 10:30-5:30p,m class
Tuesday:       - 7am-3pm clinicals
                      - 8-9pm zumba if I can make it
Wednesday: - 10:30-5:30pm class
                      - 7pm church
Thursday:     - 8-2pm class
                      - 6-7pm zumba if I can make it
Friday:            - 12-6pm work
Saturday:        - 10-4pm work
Sunday:           -10:30am church
                       -7pm church
You must also take into account my school is 45 minutes away from me. Then add in boyfriend time, studying, and taking care of my dog in all that mess. So right now life is crazy. BUT God is good and I have so many reasons to be thankful.

Right now I am in this religion class that has been so awesome. My professor used to be an atheist and is now a christian. He always has a lecture that gets you thinking ! So I will definitely have to share some of those lectures!!

I also have been doing my devotions in Matthew and Proverbs and I could talk about all the wisdom there for hours! I will do that another time though.

Now for a challenge....
I challenge you to ask yourself in every situation you face today or whatever day you are reading this to ask yourself "what are my motives?" If they are completely self centered, there is something wrong.
Remind yourself to love others and to do unto them as you would want them to do unto you.

Another Question to ask yourself: How often do you respond without compassion when someone threatens to inconvenience you with a need of their own?                     I am most definitely guilty of this. Sometimes I am so focused on something else I am doing, I don't even take the time to really hear what someone is asking me or whatever the situation may be.

Have a great week and remember one of the most precious and greatest things we can have is WISDOM. Wisdom comes from reading God's word and spending time with Him. <3