a good dose of humility :)

When I was in about 5th grade, I was sitting in Sunday school class at church.  I vividly remember my teacher was talking about his daughter's heart surgery, and he was going into a bit of detail about the tissue and the heart and other stuff like that.  And...that is the last thing I remember.  Next thing I knew, I was waking up and everyone in my Sunday school class was standing over me.  I had totally passed out!  And that is the first time I remember passing out in my life.

Over the years, I have had episodes of this...usually accompanying medical "yucky" stuff.  Such as shots, getting blood drawn...even getting my ears pierced in high school!  

However, I have now given birth to FOUR kids, so I thought I should be over this by now!  Key word:  I thought.

Well, yesterday we had a Field Health practical skills class, in which we learned different skills to use in the tribe someday.  The skills included using stethoscopes to listen to lungs, taking vital signs, using an otoscope to check ears, and...you guessed it!  Injections!

Well, I am VERY happy to report that the injections did not bother me at ALL!!  I didn't feel even a little bit dizzy as I gave Nathan a shot and he gave me one.  See how much fun we were having??

 (I wasn't dizzy, but I was a little nervous!  Nathan has never given shots before!  He did great, though).

(just so you know...he was flexing just to be silly) :) 

Nathan practicing the Epipen (no needle in it, though!  He is just being dramatic) :)

Okay, now the humbling part.  I'm sure you guessed it from the beginning of the post, but yes...I did pass out!  But surprisingly, the injections didn't bother me a bit!  

OF ALL THINGS...it was the otoscope!!  I never would have guessed that Nathan checking in my ears would make me dizzy.  And I don't know how I got the great idea to get up from my chair (while in my dizzy state) and try to make it down the hallway to the bathroom.  But I never said I was brilliant :)  

The next thing I knew, I was lying on the hallway floor with a LOT of people staring down at me, and another student holding up my legs to help with circulation.  And my head hurt!  I had hit it on the wall on my way down.  Talk about humbling!

Now, I know what you are all thinking right now.  You mean this girl, who passes out because of an OTOSCOPE is going to be a missionary in a jungle someday??  Believe me, I wonder the same thing!  But I have to keep coming back to the truth that God is able--not me.  If He wants to use me in the jungle someday, then He will!  And I can trust Him with the details.

And in the meantime, I praise Him for a good dose of humility.  It is good for me :)

a glimpse of spring

These past few days have been amazing here in Missouri.  We have LOVED getting outside!  Talk about cabin fever!  

I am so thankful that God gave us this gift of warm weather in February.  Earlier today, our high was around 70 degrees.  70 degrees!  That is a gift from God, for sure.

(Side note...the cold weather has returned, but that is okay!  I am thankful for a few warm days).   



And another side note...I learned how to do AC wiring!  Doing this lab made me realize that it is doable to wire a house...but I am also thankful that I have a hubby who already knows how to do this and is really good at it!  It was a fun lab, though :)

So...was it worth it?

This weekend was a 3-day weekend, thanks to President's Day!  So we thought...might as well make a quick trip back home to Indiana!  We thought it would be great to hang out with friends and family, as this would be our only chance to visit home this whole semester.  So...on Friday after classes, we headed out.  

We got a little bit of a late start, and we realized we would be arriving in our hometown around 1:00 in the morning!  Sigh.  I admit I didn't have the greatest attitude as we started our drive, thinking is this really worth it?  Driving all this way just to spend 2 days in Indiana before we turn around and drive all the way back?

Thankfully, Nathan (once again) helped to pull me out of my negativity, reminding me to think about truth, and not dwell on lies.  That man is good for me :)  So we ended up having a great drive (although it felt loooong).

So...the question is:  Was it worth it?

The answer?  Yes, yes...a thousand times yes!

We had a whirlwind weekend...packed with so many plans.  It was busy, but so good.  We accomplished a lot in just 2 days:

• I had breakfast out with 2 of my best friends--at Grounds and Grains, one of my fave places!
• We visited Nathan's parents--his dad just had surgery so it was great to see him!
• We had a very fun time at our good friends' house for lunch and the afternoon...Kaine was able to spend a few hours with his best friends, Carter and Hudson.  We value those times so much!
• We celebrated our sweet Halle's birthday.  (The actual day is coming up on March 3, but we thought we would celebrate with the great-grandparents while we were in town).  That was a very fun evening!
• We had great fellowship at our home church!  It is always great to be home, and have good conversations at church.
• Nathan got together with a couple of different guys and had great times connecting with them.
• I took our kiddos to visit my dear grandma.  
• We had a night out with our awesome friends, without kids!  What a fun evening.
• I'm sure there is more that I forgot to mention...

Sadly, I don't have pictures of most of those events, but here are a few!

So...Missouri's snow has officially melted.  I, for one, am glad about that.  However...Indiana is a whole different story!  I couldn't believe the piles of snow everywhere.  All I can say is...my poor dad :)  He hates the snow!

Nathan's dad took a picture of me while we were visiting at their house...here I am with my most favorite Walmart purchase ever!

Can't believe Halle will soon be six...We had such a fun time celebrating our girl!

It was so great to see my grandma Leona.  She will soon be 99 years old, and her health has been going downhill :(  Her mind is still sharp, though, and it was so great to visit with her!  I love my grandma.

(our kids always like to play with the gadgets that she has lying around)  :)

On Sunday night, we made a spontaneous decision to get our kids out of bed around 10:30 and drive through the night back to Missouri!  There was freezing rain/ice in the forecast and we wanted to beat the weather.  We are sooo glad that we did!  We made record time (no traffic!!) and our kids slept solidly the whole way.  We arrived back here at our apartment around 6:00 this morning, and we just put our kids in their beds here and they fell back asleep!  Driving through the night is the way to go.

What a crazy, fun, busy weekend!  Thanks, mom and dad for keeping us!  And thanks to everyone we were able to connect with.  We treasure these times so much.