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April 28, 2009

"House" Fire (from April 14th)


So I got a call this afternoon from my father. I can always tell when there is something wrong. It only takes about one word and I can tell in his voice. So the conversation went something like this.
Me: Hello?!?
Dad: Hey
Me: Something's wrong isn't it?
Dad: Well, yea, but don't worry, everyone is fine. 

He proceeded to tell me that around 3:30 this morning their garage caught on fire. Fortunately my parents live in the city in a Rowe house which means that the garage is NOT attached to the main house. There was absolutely NO damage to the main house. Unfortunately, just like all of the houses are attached on the side walls, all of the garages are also attached. My parents garage burnt completely, taking with it one of the cars. My dad tried to describe it as looking like one of those pictures you see from Iraq where a car bomb went off. My step sister sent me a picture later today and his description is quite right. There was also some damage to one of the next door neighbors garage and a garage across the back alley.

Praise the Lord that no one was hurt. Rowe houses are right up next to each other and there isn't much space in the back alley between one back yard and another. A fire as big as this one could have very easily spread to homes but it didn't!!!!!

My parents bought the house about 6 years ago and gutted and rebuilt it. The only part of the property that hasn't had ANY work was the garage. So thankfully NO new construction was damaged. But in the coming weeks they will be dealing with an investigation to figure out how the fire started, insurance hassels, and eventually rebuilding. 

Please pray for them during this trying time.


This is a picture of the car in what was the garage.  It used to be a Toyota MR2 Spyder convertible.

April 22, 2009

One of those days!

It was one of those days...

I should have known it would be when I was about an hour late going to bed last night.

And then I had to get up 30 minutes early this morning to take my roommate to drop her car off at the dealership.

Around 9:30 I was standing in an exam room seeing a patient (about my 6th of the day). 
I reached up and placed my hand on the collar of my shirt
At which point I realized I was touching the tag.....WHAT?
Yes, I had my shirt on backwards, and it had been like that ALL MORNING!  It took all I had to contain my laughter and pay attention to my patient.

What's worse.  I had to see 2 more patients after that before I had a long enough break to run and put my shirt on correctly.

It was one of those days!

April 19, 2009

Overwhelmed

I spent most of last week in Philadelphia.  It was my EOR week (End Of Rotation) which entailed a 7 hour drive up Tuesday, a solid day of studying and preparing on Wednesday, exam and lectures on Thursday, a presentation and lectures on Friday, and then an 8 hour drive home Friday night (for some reason the drive home ALWAYS takes longer).
I always look forward to the weekend after an EOR week.  I get to come back to NC and spend an entire weekend NOT doing school work.  I always give myself those two days to forget about school work, stay out late, watch as much TV as I want, etc.  And I usually have a really great time doing it.  It's such a break and a load off and I finally feel like I can breath again, for at least a few days.
For some reason this weekend has been a really difficult one for me though.  On Saturday morning I helped my friend Jay move (I think this was the 800th time I've helped him move but he always helps me so we're even), then I went walking at the lake with my friend Terri and then out to dinner at Dos Taquitos with a few friends for some good Mexican chow and some tasty Margaritas.  All in all it was a pretty good day but I just felt really tense the whole time.   On Sunday I went to church, Sunday School, came home and rested a bit before going to play Ultimate, back to church for evening service, to the grocery store and then home for the night.  Again, not a bad day but I've felt really tense frustrated all day.  
This morning George preached on James 2 and about growing through trials and relying on God.  I can't help but feel like God is trying to grow me through some personal trials.  I'm just not sure yet what that growth is going to be about. 
Prayers for a better attitude and patience and dedication over the next 4 months till the end of school is much appreciated!

April 12, 2009

Holiday Attitude

I have a bad attitude about holidays.  There, I said it.  

I actually really love the significance of most holidays but have found myself getting more and more cynical about them because I feel like I spend most of my holidays alone.  When I was little my family celebrated the big holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving and birthdays.  But my family aren't believers and so they don't celebrate for reasons  I do and, little by little, what celebrating we did do faded away.  

Christmas at home is now spent going to neighborhood parties.
Thanksgiving is just another meal.
Haven't had a Valentine for almost 10 years.  Yikes!
Birthdays are a big deal if I even get a phone call from family. 
Easter isn't celebrated at all.

To be completely honest, I haven't gone home for a holiday in over a year because it tends to be a little more depressing for me than celebratory.  

So, like always, I started getting a little cynical as Easter approached this year.  All my friends started telling me of their plans to go home and do traditional things with their families, go to church together, get cute easter dresses for their babies, etc. etc.  

Two friends, however, gave me a really good wake up call on my perspective.  My friend Bryan did actually go home but said that she would have rather stayed here in Raleigh where she could go to the church that she loved and be with the friends she knew loved her.  Then I ran into my friend Ben this afternoon.  When I asked him why he wasn't at home with his own family (only an hours drive from Raleigh) he explained that Providence was the church he considered his own and that's where he wanted to be for Easter.  

If I'd gone home for Easter, I probably wouldn't have made it to church, and even if I did it wouldn't have been a church I called home.  I also wouldn't have been able to spend the afternoon with all of my friends and celebrate a meal together like I did.  

So, I'm trying to have a better attitude and be thankful that I got to spend Easter at an AMAZING church I that consider home celebrating my risen LORD and spend a good portion of the day with friends.  

So Ben and Bryan...Thanks for the perspective!


last few pictures

Me and Tricia at her wedding.  What a beautiful bride.

The roomie and I at Tricia and Dave's wedding.

My other roomie, Amy, got free tickets to another Canes game but she couldn't go so she gave them to me.  Lucky for me it ended up being me and the boys (none of the girls could go).  L to R: Ben, Mike, Me, Travis.  The seats were incredible and we won 9-0.  So much fun!

More pictures

All the girls for Shannon's suprise Karaoke birthday party.

Sus and I at a Canes game!  She got us free tickets from work.  They lost but we still had fun.

The fish cupcakes I made for Alison's baby shower.  I think they came out pretty cute!

All the girls at the baby shower.  Basically an Elon reunion.

Terri and I at her birthday dinner.  

Random pictures from the last 3 months

Instead of boring you with long posts about each event I'm just going to post some of my favorite pictures from the last 3 months that you haven't seen yet!


Erin and I at the Super Bowl Party.  Love having another Pgh girl here to celebrate with me!


Bryan and I baking cookies for an outreach!

Erin and I at Snowshoe....not only is she from Pgh but we always ski together too!

The view out the back door of our condo.  Ski in/ski out....very nice!

Bobby, Karoline and I...I think this was a Christmas potluck or something...I seriously can't remember!



The non-blogging blogger

so, I am a self proclaimed Non-Blogging Blogger.  I LOVE to read other peoples blogs and actually LOVE for other people to read my blog.  For some reason, though, I have the hardest time actually BLOGGING!  I don't know if it has more to do with lack of time or a bit of a perfectionist problem.  See, I've been told that one of the problems of a perfectionist is that they won't start or finish tasks if they don't feel like they can do a PERFECT job of the task.  This is definitely an issue for me.  One thing I do know is that my non-blogging is NOT for lack of things to say.  

I think I've had the attitude that every blog post has to be about something life changing or have some fantastic pictures to go along with it.  So, instead, I am going to try to focus on just blogging SOMETHING at least once a week.  Sorry if you get bored reading or if not every post has a picture but this is my own challenge to myself.  

Happy reading.