Happy 30th Anniversary Mom and Dad!

They are awesome! Their marriage and their love is such an example! I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for our future as a family! And here they are at prom when they were about 15 or 16! Love y'all so so very much!!!!

The theme of their prom was "We've Only Just Begun". . . Appropriate!

The Desires of My Heart

Two months ago I had a very, very different picture in my mind for the way I wanted both my summer and my future to go. And it has seemed like nothing has gone my way yet, according to that plan. HOWEVER, this summer has been much better than I ever thought it would go!! The Lord has NOT given me the desires of my heart, and for that I am eternally grateful!!!
I am in shock and awe at the way the Lord cares for me and loves me and desires all things to work best for my spiritual good!! And He has provided abundantly for my soul!!!

One Step Closer

I am DONE with the GRE (Lord willing!)!!!!!! I did well enough and I hope that it does the trick :) So, that makes one step closer to PA school! Someone at church tonight mentioned the fact that in 3 years I would be going to Uganda with them and seeing my own patients!! WHOADA! That floored me---I couldn't be more excited!
Tonight I was doing a little more research on Sleep Apnea and came across this article. In the article the surgeon said this:

 "One area that is relatively new is the role of sleep apnea in these patients, which develops in about 50% to 60%. As kids with cleft lip and palate get a little older and midface scarring occurs, the midface might not grow as much, increasing the risk for sleep apnea. Basically, you need to have an increased suspicion for symptoms of sleep apnea in children with cleft lip and palate. Affected children are best served by a multidisciplinary team with a sleep specialist who can do sleep studies and provide treatment for apnea as children get older."

How I got this far along and haven't been warned about sleep apnea before, I am not sure! I am so thankful to be arriving at what seems like an answer. . .I can't wait for July 6th!

Tourniquet Tying Practice

I stuck my first dummy arm today and got blood on the first try!! It was super exciting. But, unfortunately, Mr. Dummy has a whopper vein sitting right there in front of you. I know that the trick to all this is going to be doing it by feel and not by sight, because the majority of veins I'm sticking I won't be able to see. So, I got home and began thinking of ways to make a tourniquet so that I could start palpating people's veins. I realized you could buy them but just haven't gotten around to it. So, tonight while watching TV, I decided to be productive and practice tying tourniquets. As usual, I got creative.

Step 1: get rubber band and cut it, Step 2: get favorite baby doll that has been chilling in the top of your closet for the past 10 years, Step 3: practice, practice, practice. Annnnnndddd, VOILA:

Notice the lovely "tourniquet" on her left arm

Tomorrow, I start on the family. Oh, after I take the GRE of course. . .eek. Pray for me!

Peelage and Medicine Love

My face is peeling. My mother looks at me and rolls her eyes and shakes her head. She informed me of the fact that every day 1 person is diagnosed with melanoma (. . . or maybe it was every hour??). As you can see it made a big impact on me. : /
Anyway, today I had phlebotomy class. . .super-duper fun! I L-O-V-E medicine! We are doing our first venipuncture on the dummies Thursday and then next week we start on each other. . .eek (only 2 weeks in!!). And I got to wear my sweet kicks, which made the day even better.

My 'Roos!!! 

I then came home to take an hour nap and what do ya know. . . woke up 3 and a half hours later despite setting an alarm. Oh the joys of having sleep issues! Fortunately, I have a sleep study on July 6th, so we will soon know what's up. PTL!
I was praying last night and it was put on my heart to pray for a sincere longing for the New Jerusalem--to long for a time when we will live in perfect communion with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. What a joy that will be! But, what I have been contemplating is this: what does that longing look like in every-day life? After thinking today over, I felt as though I major-league failed in my longing today. How was I longing for the New Jerusalem when I snapped at my mother because things weren't going my way today? How was I longing for the New Jerusalem when I slept for 3 and 1/2 hours? But then I realized, perhaps those things create that longing. Unfortunately, our sins and shortcomings as humans will constantly plague us in this world, but the Lord uses them to draw us closer to Him and to create a longing for His desires to be fulfilled and His glory to be made known over all the earth!

"The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory. . . .Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!" Psalm 97: 6,11-12

Life, as of late.

I've decided I love the sun, the summer, the heat, the water, the buzz of cicadas, and all things to do with a southern summer. I can't get enough outdoors this summer! It all started with kayaking the Weeki Wachee and then Pawley's Island, then on to a week of working with middle schoolers cleaning a yard and then going to Carowinds (where I road The Intimidator. . . eek) and then this past weekend was spent in the sun on Edisto Island!! And goodness, it was great. 

But before that I got the opportunity to help out with the In-City Mission for Middle Schoolers at my church! And, news flash: Catharine, LIKES middle schoolers! These kids were fabulous! I mean, how many middle schoolers do you know that would take 4 days out of their summer to clean up a person's yard  jungle?? They were sweet and loving and had some funny things to say. On Friday we took a group of 56 middle- and high-schoolers to Carowinds and that was a blast as well (although a wee bit hot)! My favorite comment of the week was from one of my sweet girls and it went something like this: "Boys are just bodies with heads filled with air!" I didn't quite know how to respond, so I settled for, "Some of them may seem that way but most of them are pretty great." 

The challenge for me was having spiritual conversations with these kids. I so wanted them to like me and I came in after the other leaders so I never was really introduced to most of them and I didn't know how much the kids would tolerate as far as questions went. So, I think I probably said too little. The worse that could've happened would have been for them to brush me off. So, I pray that I get another opportunity with these kids, and in the meantime, I'm praying for them. Some of them are going through things no kid should ever have to face and they are still brilliantly optimistic, loving, and caring. They convicted me and I want to get to know them better and invest further into their lives!!

Oh, I never posted the rest of the manatee pics, so here you go (to see previous pics of Weeki Wachee click here):

Baby manatee

Me petting him!!!!!