Winter Advance '08

Well, for those of you that doubt that Adam and I actually do youth ministry up here, here is a little proof for you:-) Martin Luther King weekend is always our designated weekend for Winter Advance. It is the biggest trip for the youth (they don't have a youth camp during the summer like most of us fondly remember:-))and they LOVE it. This was my 2nd year to be able to go and we took the most kids since Adam has been the pastor: 61 youth and 18 leaders! We stay at Camp Bretheren Woods, about 2 1/2 hours away, for 4 days and 3 nights of no sleep and eating junk. Sunday is the day we head up to Massanutten Ski Resort where the kids can ski, snowboard, tube, or just hang out in the lodge. This year's theme was "Purity with a Purpose". Pastor Wayne (our head pastor) was the teacher this year and laid it ALL out about sex. It was so awesome and the kids got alot of answers to questions they had and had the chance to sign a new covenant with God for purity in their lives, focusing on grace-filled accountability with each other. I'm telling you, there is nothing more rewarding in life than to see young people turning their lives back to the Lord. I was tearing up alot that day:-) I also got the chance to talk with all the girls on Saturday morning, sharing my own testimony about relationships and high school. I was sooo nervous but so glad I got to share with them.

Here are some highlights from the weekend. I apologize for the poor picture quality (I'm still using the ghetto Kodak EasyShare since I dropped my good camera)



The first game of injuries: some sort of thumb war or something



We played another game where certain kids had to describe what was under the boxes to the audience. The boxes had fruit, a shoe, and then under the last box was Tim Brock, one of our adult leaders.Every kid screamed when they peaked under. It was hilarious!



This was sharks and minnows only on land, not water. The kids had to crawl from one end to the other, with the sharks having to steal a shoe from the minnows. It basically turned into a giant wrestling collision.



Some of my favorite girls







Bad quality picture but here is everyone sitting down for a session



Can ya'll believe that people STILL play the cup game?? I for one was never a fan, but they still love it!




Adam in charge









Scary snow monster:-)



Yes, my husband is wearing a Teletubby costume at the ski resort. There was an autistic boy who thought he was real and wanted to stab him to death!






How pretty...

First Day of Work

Well yesterday was my very first day of work as a nurse practitioner. Needless to say, it was quite overwhelming! As most of you can remember, I graduated school in August of 2007 and haven't really been in the NP mindset since then. So of course I have been freaking out for a the last couple of weeks and trying to study notes, etc. I was slightly at ease though when the doctor said about a week ago, "Don't worry, I'll hold your hand the whole way through". So I showed up Wed. morning with a hand ready to be held:-) Instead, I show up to a schedule that has me seeing 10 patients by myself!! I basically had to b.s. my way through the first day and act completely comfortable and that everything was no problem. I was there at 8:30 and didn't leave until 7pm. (Then of course, I had the 1 hour drive home). Needless to say, it was overwhelming. I did annuals, contraceptive planning, HPV counseling, pyschosocial consults, and more cultures and paps then I've done in a while. I've realized that I'm working with a brilliant doctor and that is also a little intimidating. She is a VERY OCD with cleanliness and she says everything is "beautiful" (ex: beautiful uterus, beautiful cervix, beautiful breasts.... you get the point:-)) Anyways, today is a well needed day off and I'm hoping I can recoup a little bit. I guess we'll see how the rest of the week goes!

School Loans

Few things in life frustrate me more than school loans. Can somebody please explain to me how a STUDENT loan can cost you nearly 3x the amount you borrowed in the first place??? How compounded interest can depend on if they do it daily, monthly, or continuously?? How you pay and pay and pay on your "principal" and all you are really paying for is more interest?? Or my favorite is when you call the loan people to ask them a question and you get some super math nerd spitting out so much information that you finally just say "oh, I get it now" (when you are even worse off than you started). I am not even lying, if I had known how much this whole process was going to cost me in the beginning, I would have done a whole lot of things differently. (How differently? I have no clue. Just differently). And if one more person tries to tell me that school loans are an "investment", I might just scream! Now don't get me wrong, my wonderful parents totally helped me out with college and I couldn't have done it without them. And precious Adam probably didn't realize that my marriage dowry included so much fun like school loan debt. He just smiles and says, "We'll get through it". And in the end, I know we'll get through it. It just makes you wonder if the amount you pay off in the end was truly worth the education you got.

New Year=New Beginnings (pun intended)

So the word is officially out on the streets--- I got a new job!!! Praise the Lord! After a very long and often sleep-deprived year (and the reason I've been up since 3AM tonight), I will no longer be working the night shift! In about 2 weeks, I will officially be employed as a Women's Health Nurse Practitioner at New Beginnings OBGYN. I am so stinkin excited! The office consists of 1 female physician (they are looking to hire another), 1 RN, an ultrasound tech, a phlebotomist, about 4-5 office staff, and ME. During my interview, the physician told me that they are a Christian office who "prays together and plays together":-) Shoot, they even hugged me when I left my interview. The biggest downfall of the job is that I will have to commute 1 hour each way. Luckily, I will only be working part-time (about 27 hours/week), with the opportunity to move up once I build my own clientele. The 1st 90 days will be a trial period where they make sure that I fit well with the practice and that I know my stuff. Which brings me to my next emotion: FEAR. I am so scared that I've forgotten all my knowledge from school and I am going to get into a patient's room and just blank-out. But I believe the Lord has given me this position and I know that I will be ok (hopefully)! So keep me in your prayers on January 21 and until then I'll be sleeping in, having 3 day weekends, frantically studying, and preparing for my sex talk to the youth girls for our upcoming winter retreat (more on that later:-)!