I'm still here!

I must repent. I have joined the ranks of those who fail to keep up with their blog. A quick overview of the last weeks . . . I returned from vacation and 4 days later rode a couple of hours to an assistive technology conference. It was pretty good. I really like that sort of stuff. As a special education teacher, it's so fascinating to see the new technology that is coming available to help my kids and others with disabilities to become more independent! Sorry, a tangent. I then went to my parents on Saturday, it's been so long since I've seen the Fam. I missed them. 45 minutes is the perfect distance . . . My oldest niece turned 13 on Monday. Yikes. The older she gets the older I seem to be getting. Funny how that works!(BTW- I made them look at almost all of my pictures! Torture!)

This week I've started the job search for next year. I love my current job. I love my current job. I love my current job. Sorry, I got caught in the recitation . . . I DO like my job, but it's not exactly the job I'd like to have for the next 10 years. I'm working as a paraeducator/paraprofessional and I need to BE the professional. It's been a great visit, but I can't stay. There are multiple jobs in the area. So many applications!

I'm also starting homebound instruction for a couple of kids from school who are out for medical reasons and we're just about 2 weeks from the end of the forensics season at the high school. We'll be wrapping up with our state competition in Madison Wisconsin on Friday the 13th. Things might slow down after that. Maybe not!

I'm really not complaining. I promise! These are all things that I've chosen to do. Things that I actually enjoy doing! Again with the recitation. Sometimes I just need to remind myself of these things! I get so busy that I let myself get lost in the details! I do apologize if I neglect the blog. Maybe I'll pencil it in my schedule, "think of witty discussions for your blog!" :)

I have a retreat this weekend that I'm really looking forward to! So much quality time with my pals! I can't wait!

(don't) Visit South Dakota . . .

We are finally home, as of 3:30 am Sunday morning. Very tired. Wyoming was REALLY long, butt long even! South Dakota was just as long and boring. God has a sick sense of humor I think, in the very short time that I've watched TV since being home, I've seen the "visit South Dakota" commercial at least 3 times. It's sick. It really is no where near as exciting as they make it look . . .

Must sleep . . .

A

Greetings from Utah!

Greetings from Utah! We are currently in Lewiston Utah, staying with some friends of mine Matt and Barbara Combes from way back. I was friends with their oldest daughter Marissa in college. We had dinner with their daughter and HER daughter(Baby Elizabeth is only 4 months, she didn't eat much!) tonight and I hope to see their younger daughter tomorrow before we leave for Wyoming. We're hoping to stay in Casper and then head home Saturday. We are all healthy, for the most part, and seriously looking forward to being home again! We'll be stopping in Logan again tomorrow to get some more world famous Aggie Ice Cream on our way out of town! I'll post more pics soon!

See you all soon!
A

Status

Hey to all of my devoted readers (HA!): We are safely in Moab Utah, although a little later than planned! We drove in tonight in the dark, so I'm preparing to be amazed! I must admit that it will have to pretty darn good to surpass what we saw today in Colorado! Several hours up into the mountains and several hours back down! Touted as "Top of the Rocky Mountains" it was indeed Ah-maze-ing! I now have more than 5 or 600 pictures! Don't worry, I won't post them all!

More later,
A

If you ever get sick . . .

do not go opt for a hospital in Nebraska! After several hours of hard core vomiting and diarrhea I took a little tour of York General Hospital (now seriously, who names any hospital "general hospital"?). I thought it might be food poisoning, and I guess they may have been able to ease that, so off we went! The doctor(once they called him in from his home- which may have been in Wyoming for as long as he took!) ordered xrays and blood work. While I was there I was punctured at least 4 times because they couldn't find my veins(not uncommon for me). . 5 HOURS LATER! I walked out, or rather staggered, drugged and pumped full of IV fluids. They ruled it a virus. The Doc would have sent me on my way with just medication and good wishes (and meds to settle my stomach and curb the diarrhea) but I told him that as I was travelling there was no way I would be drinking anything to "stay hydrated" if that meant the stomach turmoil would start all over again. It wasn't pleasant even with a bathroom available! He obliged me with IV fluids. 3 of the 4 puncture wounds were from an attempt to find a vein to pour the fluids into! My veins suck on a good day, I was seriously dehydrated, and my blood pressure was 86/64 or 88/64 or something equally ridiculous, which made it a treat for the nurses. The drugs they gave me had a serious sedating affect, and so Ang got to drive THE WHOLE TRIP! I wasn't much help, as I couldn't stay awake at all!

We drove all day finally getting to our hotel in Colo Springs at 11 PM! This morning we woke up feeling mildly better, although my body ached all over. I pulled sooo many muscles in this ordeal and even had all the little blood vessels in my eyelids burst. I looked like my normal supermodel self . . . beaten. Ang could hardly walk after driving 2 whole days! What a woman! My favorite comment from the child, "How did we get here so fast? I can't believe it!" Oh to be able to sleep through it all!

We did enjoy the Garden of the Gods today, and I eased back into eating with a lunch from Jamba Juice(to die for!) and our half pound Buffalo burgers from The Keg in Manitou Springs seemed to settle just fine! We stopped by the Pita Pit to see our friend's sister who owns it, but she wasn't there and my tummy wasn't up for sampling their goodies!

I have some great pics, but I can't figure out how to find them on my computer, so I'll have to figure it out and post them later. I've put the software on my computer but I can't find them on the computer once I put them there! I'll have to figure out where they are going . . .

See you all soon!
A

Blogger hates me . . .

I am pretty sure Blogger hates me. For some unknown reason Blogger won't let me "sign in". When I am signed in, it won't let me make a "new post". After several failed attempts to log in and far too long looking for help, I finally got in through a way that I won't remember for next time! So, I'll post a couple of posts now!

Has anyone else had this problem with Blogger? Does anyone have a solution or a place to go for help? For some reason the entire top line of my blog is inactive. The links change color when I hover, but then don't link to anywhere. Ideas?

Hey! Angely and I are leaving Friday for our vacation. We're going through Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado (Colo Springs), Moab, SLC, Ogden, Logan, (Idaho), Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin. We'll be back the end of next Saturday. We'll stay with my college friend Jen Tuesday night and Wednesday night and head up to Logan to stay with the Combes (friends from my old church, like a second family to me during college!) in their new house Thursday night. We'll head out Friday afternoon and spend the night in the middle of Wyoming. Should be fun, I think. I'm very overwhelmed and dreading it for now. Tomorrow, once I've packed and cleaned and got my keys from church where I left them and went to Walmart and then stopped in the Cities to pick up my new digital camera, I think I might enjoy it!

Also- Daylight savings comes this weekend. Or goes. I don't care which it is, but I do know we lose an hour (spring forward) of sleep Saturday night. Hmm.. . We become an hour earlier going to Utah, and then go an hour later with the time change. Wait, maybe I'm wrong, but do we just stay the same time the whole trip? We'll lose the hour next weekend then? That makes my head hurt.

I will have my cell phone and my laptop on this week. We'll have internet along the way. It will be fun. Come back to my blog for updates!

When it rains . . .

. . . it pours. At Olivia's funeral today Aaron and Tori asked their pediatrician to take a look at Tori's 8 year old niece whose health has been declining in the month that they've been staying with Aaron and Tori. Her dad is between jobs and that means no insurance. The doctor told them to take her to the hospital immediately. They took her to the hospital in Ogden, and they life-flighted her to Primary Children's Hospital in SLC, where Olivia had been, and young Nicole, until less than a week ago. She was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and is in critical condition. No down time for them. They applied for the state insurance in Alaska before coming down to Utah, but haven't heard anything.

I've been without insurance and it's not a good place. It must be so hard to be worried about getting the best care for your child. I don't really want to go political, but I have to wonder about a more socialized form of health care.

Anyway- I ask that you would pray with me for this little girl, Abigail, and keep her in your thoughts. Wow, how difficult for them. One small positive, though- the whole family is there already. It's a small positive, but nonetheless . . .

A

An In-Lightened Moment . . . .

Deep thoughts by A:

As I walked into the bathroom this morning at work, I had an epiphany. A revelation, if you will. (Oddly enough, it's fairly common for my deep thoughts to happen in locations such as this . . .) The bathroom at our school has motion sensored lights. The switch must be on, and then there must also be movement. In theory, if you sat long enough in one position, the lights could shut off on you, leaving you in the dark (but that would be a little weird). The reality is that sometimes the switch is on, but it looks pitch dark in there. Those are the times(like this morning) that you just have to go on faith and walk boldly into the room(and sometimes around the corner) flailing your arms until the sensor wakes up to the fact that there is indeed someone in the room and then turns on. (I giggle at this every time, but thankfully it's dark and no one else can see me!) You feel more than a bit ridiculous, buy hey, how bad do you want that light on, you know?

Anyway, this morning I had the thought that this brought a new visual to the phrase "coming boldly before the throne". Bear with me a moment. The Bible talks about the fact that we as Christians (we have already turned that light switch on) are able to boldly approach the throne of God. That our sins have been covered (Due to God's perfection we cannot approach Him without a sin offering, which is Jesus) and now we get to boldly approach Him. He doesn't expect us to crawl, wimper, email or text. We are friends and children and we can walk right in, flailing our arms and He receives us gladly. All we have to do is approach and take action. Make sense? Now, I can't take the analogy much further, although I do get to get rid of some very nasty stuff from the inside of me that Jesus took on Himself in my place, but maybe that gets to be a little disturbing. (of course, why we as Christians keep trying to take that stuff back may be a topic for another post entirely. Oh wait, I digress!) I'd better finish the analogy there. :)

This has been your daily devotional, brought to you by the letter A and the number 2.

"And so dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. . . . And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God's people, let us go right into the presence of God, with true hearts fully trusting in Him. For our evil consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water." Hebrews 10:19, 21-22 (NLT)


BTW- can you tell I'm operating on very little sleep? Makes my world a bit giddy! LOL

Nicole . . .

I just found out that little Nicole went to be with Jesus today too. I can't imagine losing one so young as eleven, either. Please pray for the Turner family, as well as the Swanks. I understand that as believers and (I believe) as ones so young, they are genuinely with Jesus now, and in a much better place, but that doesn't seem to make daily life here much easier for their families. I remember when some one close to me once died and everyone else's lives continued on in normalcy, or quickly returned to it, but mine did not. It was so hard for me because my life was not normal at that point, there was a big gaping hole in my life, ya know? I can only imagine what it would be like . . .

Thanks for listening to my really-late-night, can't-seem-to-sleep-no-matter-how-early-I-gotta-get-up ramblings,
A

Tears . . .

Olivia Faith Swank
Born: 10/15/06
Went to be with Jesus in Heaven: 3/02/07