prayer request

its been a long time since i've posted.... and this won't be a long one. i just needed to ask all my wonderful friends for some prayer...

nothing serious, just remember me when talking with our Heavenly Father.

I have been in school less than one semester and am already questioning my motivation and goals. are they really what i want or am i letting my pride lead me?

please pray that the Lord will lead me in the way i should go, that He would open and close doors accordingly.

sigh. and now back to my studies...

for a good time...

okay, maybe not a good time, but more like a good laugh, visit this website, read the reviews...you will not be disappointed. justin found this on digg and shared with me.  now i share with you. i'm a giver...  hehe

Hilarity <-----------

i've found the most wonderful website!  http://www.stilltasty.com  some of you may already know about it, sometimes i'm a little slow finding things!  justin and i are so busy most of the time we can't keep track of what's old and what's not. we're horrible about cleaning out the fridge till i'm gagging as the door closes.  course then its a full on over haul. 

and speaking of being busy, i've got another class starting monday.  i've got two for sure students and a possible third. (i've also got my dog thinking she's being sneaky in my lap right now...she thinks i dont' notice that she's inching toward my dinner)

i'm hopeful about these two students. being a vocational school of sorts, we get people with more baggage than an airport.  my last two students were a promising twenty year old with less than desireable transportation and no phone and a forty nine year old who was way over medicated, an insomniac and defined herself by her emotional troubles.   the older of the two has nearly finished her externship and should be looking for a job at this point. the younger, well, no one's heard from her after her first week and a half of externship. i fear there's no transportation, and that's horrible because she's such a smart, ambitious gal.  no one gets their certificate if they don't complete all their hours.  i like the teaching part, i'm not so fond of the social worker side of what i've been doing.  

anyway, the new two students, i've only met once, but i'm hopful.  one is a thirty-ish male, and the other is a fifty-ish female.  they seem like they've got it together, they just need something new.  maybe i'll have less social work to do this time...i can only hope.  

i've also decided that i'm going back to school.  i'm not sure exactly what my major will be, but i do plan on going to medical school.  its a long hard road, but i've been in the work force long enough that i don't want to be forty and work as a technician. so now, as opposed to when i was 18, i've got much more drive and a goal.  

after talking to my brother, things became much more resolved in my head.  he's in dental school, so i feel like i'll definitely have someone to help me on some of the tougher subjects, and someone to vent to when i'm taking 25 hours and going crazy. 

i'm excited though. i'm excited to finally know what i want to do, or at least the direction to head. 

i still have to decide what school to go to, and figure out financial aid.  that's going to be lovely. 

AND before i get started this fall, i'd really like to buy a house.  i'd like to take advantage of the stimulus fund...8,000 that i don't have to pay back?!  i'd be crazy not to do it. so i figure i need to do that before i take out all sorts of crazy student loans.   the really scary thing is leaving my job.  i'd like to say i could teach my class from eight till one and then go to school the rest of the day, but i don't know how realistic that is.  i guess we'll see.  at least i won't be working at the dr's office anymore once i start...and i'll miss it.  oh well, on to bigger and better things i suppose.  

i'll definitely need prayer, as i absolutely can't do this with out the Lord's help.  i'm a little a.d.d. sometimes and i know i'll get discouraged from time to time.  but with the support of all my friends and family i know i can accomplish something with my life.  

funny ha ha

sillies

man kids have the coolest toys to choose from now!! i want nearly all of them!  

(its sad.)  i'm 27. i watch lots and lots of cartoons.  i love them!  and during the commercials, i see all the cool new toys!  like zubber....okay, i would have had a heart attack to get something like that way back when.  i'd love to get it now.  and those stickers that you put foil on?  how cool is that?  if i had kids, they'd probably be mad cause i'd want to play with all their stuff and i'd use it all up!  

on an unrelated note, i just finished reading a book for the first time in i don't know how long.  i've attempted to read many books in the last year or so, and i've never been able to finish them.  none of them have been interesting enough to just sit down and finish.  (actually, i just now remember that i did read an entire book several months ago.  but i won't count that one.)

this one is a recent classic of 1959.  it is shirley jackson's the haunting of hill house.  if you saw the movie "house on haunted hill"  its not even close to the book, besides the characters traits and an occasional line from the house keeper. the movie was a bust in my opinion.  but the book is worth a read.  

on a note more related to the beginning of this post, spongebob is on, so i'll take my leave. 

eh

why is it that mostly men are prayed for during prayer meeting?  is it because men are better than women? is it because they have worse problems than women?  no.

i think it is because men are praying.  now, i'm not about to tell you i think women should get up and pray. absolutely not.  i just think that the men should think more about for whom to lift up to our Lord.  women are such the backbone to the body. women are the ones constantly lifting their husbands up, praying for the church. 

tonight, paul anderson and bob watts were prayed for.  paul anderson for safety on the road, and bob watts for healing.   amen to those things. but how about prayer for the safety and wellbeing of mary anderson while she's home alone? how about comfort and strength for janice watts during the trying time of having a sickly spouse?  

perhaps i'm a little sensitive because of my own situation. 

but i'm not being sexist. i'm not thinking in terms of conventional "equality" issues.  and i'm not above thinking that it is simply an issue i have with my own home assembly. 

growing up, all prayers were generally for my dad, his health, his strength.  i don't remember my mom ever being prayed for until near the end.  how is it that she, going through such an enormous struggle, was not lifted up until that point?  why was that not caught earlier?  i remember being puzzled about it then.  i also remember being puzzled about the fact that everyone always asked my mom how my dad was doing, but never how she was doing.  

i was puzzed about those things.  still am.  i'm more empathetic to whatever my mom must've felt now, being a spouse myself of a person not completely well.  and it didn't dawn on me till tonight that it was happening to me now.  

i understand concern and polite conversation.  but let's face it, if something is happening to our spouse, it might as well be happening to us.  we're one flesh, that's how it goes.   we need the support of our spiritual family just as much as from our physical family and our friends.  

i'm not even sure i can wrap this up logically.  my whole point is that we should all think beyond what conventional concern is. we should concern ourselves with spouses, children, parents, all those peripherally involved in a situation. perhaps we are missing someone the Lord is pointing to without pointing to them directly.  

so i've finally decided.  i'm going to do it.  i'm going to go back to school.  

freaky how things change in your head as you get older and "wiser".   i said when i finally finished my associates degree after five years that i was done. i hated school.  i hated taking general courses in which i had no interest whatsoever.  so i got my degree and left with no intention of ever going back. 

i've been assisting in the field of optometry for four years now. i've gotten to the point where i'm bored with what i'm doing.  its no longer challenging, and i never thought i'd think of feel that way.  i've gotten to the point where i feel i'm wasting myself.  its not that i'm the smartest person in the world, or even the most qualified, but i don't want to be a tech at the age of 45.  

so now the question is what to do.  the obvious answer has been to go to optometry school after completing my bachelors.  that avenue presents a few problems.  one is the fact that the only optometry school in oklahoma is in talequa. that's about two and half hours from here.  even if justin is done with school at that point, i'm sure he'll have a job in the city. so we'd have to (1) move to talequa and try to find work for him or (2) i'd have to commute and yeah right i'd be able to work at all while i'm in school.  and what about housing? then we'd have two rent payments.   the other problem with that scenario is that i'm not too keen on ONLY becoming an optometrist.  i really don't feel like refracting day in and day out.  i'd much rather deal with the medical side of the eye, i.e. glaucoma, cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, etc.  in oklahoma, i can treat and provide post-op care for most medical conditions affecting the eye. but ONLY in oklahoma.  (hmmm, i've capitalized only twice now...weird)   also, optometrists are about a dime a dozen here.  to make much money and recoup all the expenses of school, i'd pretty much have to open my own practice. when there's so many optometrists around, man, how would i get ahead?  

so then i'd need to go to medical school and become an opthamologist. so five, six more years. two hundred thousand dollars of debt later, i'd be an md, but at what real cost?   

so you can see my delima.  i keep talking myself out of all possibilities.  i've always had an interest in geology.  so why not try that?  but what course to even try?  then my first love has always been makeup for the stage, either special effects or high fashion.  how do i make any money at that?  i'd have to go to school in another state, probably california or ny to do that.  its all so confusing.  i don't really know what i want to do really.

justin got lucky.  programming found him.  and he's in love with it.  he looks forward to doing his job everyday. he loves his schoolwork (for the most part-you can't love it all).  i'm scared really.  probably of failure, but really because i don't know what i'm good at.  i've always been good at a lot of things, but i've never been great at anything.  kinda like a jack of all trades, master of none. that's me in a nut shell.  

i've enjoyed teaching the class for the school the dr i work for started.  in fact, the next class, i'll probably be working at the institute itself.  so maybe i can get some college credit for cheap...hehe.  but in all reality, i don't think i could deal with teaching people in this capacity forever.  

anyway, just needed to get a few of those thoughts out of my head and onto "paper".  

since september? really? okay okay so i've been putting it off. course like anything one puts off, the further one gets behind. then its nearly impossible to ever catch up. so i can't catch up. i admit defeat. i'll just start from here. here's a brief synopsis of what happened september to now:

october:
justin celebrated his 29th birthday. actually, he didn't, i and some close friend did by throwing a small party.
justin and i went to nyc for our first vacation together since our honeymoon. we were there for a little over a week. you can look at all of our pictures (that i've uploaded) on flickr.



november:
i got older. i vaguely remember someone saying i turned 27. yikes.
thanksgiving happened. we went the weekend before to my grandma's and visited with my aunt and uncle and cousins. it was so nice to do something like we did back when i was 1o.
all of us cousins got blankets and watched "hook" like we used to in the living room. the only thing that changed was that half of us fell asleep during the movie. darn getting old.

december:
wow. where to begin.
my sister in law turned 21. i threw a big party for her with the guy she's now dating.
john came home for a visit for about two weeks. previously mentioned family came down for a weekend to visit.
after two years at our north office, i transferred to our south office. its more of a drive, but worth it. i left contact lens administration behind forever and started scribing for the doctor. much much much much more interesting.
jill and jd came into town. i spent nearly everyday after work either visiting with jill or with my family. my entire house fell into disarray except for when i put up our decorations. and that didn't last long.
i ended the days of multiple celebrations with families for holidays. we spent christmas eve with justin's family, and christmas day with mine. we'll probably switch next year. same thing with thanksgiving. thank goodness we don't have kids. otherwise i'm told that would be impossible. we're considering going out of town on vacation next year. also impossible with children i hear.

january:
sleep.
seriously. i slept an entire weekend when it was all said and done.
then school started on the sixth. i'm not in school, i'm teaching it. crazy. the doctor i work for started "the oklahoma eye institute." it was awesome that i got to decide to cancel class yesterday. i actually called it in to the news stations too....hehe oh the power. in reality, i've only got two students. but that's good, considering its the first time i've ever taught. poor sods, i'm learning on them. you can check out the old website if you want to. www.oklahomaeyeinstitute.com.
actually, if we get a few more students next class, then i'll be able to stop working at the office to make up the remainder of my hours. its very tiring . class is 8-1 monday through friday. i have to work usually two or three days 2-7 and then every other week i work a saturday all day. so that's six days a week. plus i'm trying to go work out. plus i'm trying to go to church. i don't know how you people with kids survive!!!

okay, speaking of school, i'm going to brave the icy roads tomorrow morning so that i can have class. i now understand why school systems and teachers dislike having class cancelled. i have so much to teach, and so little time!