Birthday wishes!

Happy Birthday, Mandy (she's the one wearing the blue towel)! I hope you have a wonderful birthday-day & year to come!

The One

The One who leads you
makes no mistakes.
The One who guides you
has the right direction.
The One who counsels you
has the wisest answer.
The One who provides
has the greatest resources.
The One who blesses you
brings the greatest joys.
~Roy Lessin

A Dedication

I had mentioned (in a previous post) a poem about cancer dedicated to those people in my life who were facing the struggle & fight with cancer. One man named Chris went home to be with the Lord last Wednesday. He was only 40 years old. Please continue to pray for those he left behind, specifically my dear friend & Chris's mother--Betsy. Even though I have worked in oncology & will soon be returning to the cancer field, I will never get used to seeing the agony of grief, loss, & brokenness. The other individual, Rex, has lived a wonderful & fulfilling life; however, his battle with cancer is slowly weakening. It is at this time when family comes together to make the all-too-difficult decisions to honor the wishes of a beloved father, as hard as it may be. Please pray for the O'Connor family & my brother David, who are tirelessly caring for Rex & for each other.

It is to those I have mentioned above that I dedicate this post. My love, prayers, sympathy, tears, & eternal hope go out to each of you.

Still believin'

MU may have lost this weekend, but I still believe in my team! Go Tigers! Besides, how can you not cheer for a team with such cute fans?!

MIZZOU-RAH!

20-10!

Happy Birthday to Brooke! She turned 20-10 today and I wish her a most fabulous year! Our 30s are gonna be the best yet...I just know it:)

9-11

As Americans, we all know what this day holds. It holds remembrance, grief, disbelief, anger, fear, hope, & purpose. I cannot help but think of what I was doing this fateful day 6 years ago, busily working my shift at NKCH when the world stopped for that moment in time. And to think of how I have grown, evolved, & changed. I drove past a church today that was holding prayer vigils all day in remembrance of 9-11. I applaud this little church for their prayerful action. However, why does it take a horrid memory to remind us to pray...pray for each other, our enemies, our nation, our military, our leaders, our government, our workplaces & our schools. Let us all remain mindful of what this country & each other need; that is, prayer. With that said, I will end and say thank you to all those heroes 6 years ago & continue to pray for all of us left behind.

Excitement for the future!

I wanted to let you all know that I have officially accepted an Oncology Nurse Practitioner position at the Kansas City Cancer Center - North office. As many of you know, this is the office I worked at for 4 years as a RN. It has been a challenging, exciting, & overwhelming experience; but I have complete confidence that this is my next step in my professional career. Thank you for your prayers & thoughts:) It's awesome to know that I am one step closer to achieving my dream!

Much love to you all! And GO TIGERS:)

Happy Birthday, Em!

Happy Birthday, Em! Hope you have a great day, wonderful weekend (with the move) & an even more awesome year! Love you:)

Word of Encouragement

Here is a poem I have had for quite some time. I wanted to share this, especially for my friends & family who are dealing with the effects of cancer right now. I love you all and am continually praying for each of you!

What Cancer Cannot Take from You

It cannot take away your faith, shatter your hope,

or lesson your love

It cannot destroy true friendship, invade the soul,

or take away Eternal Life

It cannot conquer your Spirit.

~written by JLC

On another note, Race for the Cure is coming up--August 12 at Union Station. For those who have not heard of this, it is a 5K walk/run supporting the Susan G. Komen Breast Foundation. This is a great, overwhelming, and inspiring event! Here is the link if you are interesting in signing up: http://www.komenkansascity.org/

Slacker...that's me

I apologize for being such a blog slacker. However, I am in a brief but much-needed break from school...so here's what's been goin' on!

1. Resolution of my identity theft crisis. I still don't know who or how, but all my money is safely in possession once again.
2. As I said above, classes are over for the summer. That means I only have one more semester (or trimester--as I realized after talking with Joy) before I re-enter the real world and actually use some of this knowledge I have packed in my brain for the last year. Yippee & yikes, all at the same time!
3. Josh & Emily's wedding. It was beautiful & went so smoothly (I didn't have any doubt):) I wish I could share all the pics I took, but (for those of you that know me well), that would mean way too many pics. So, here are my favs! Enjoy:)

Amie-Dot

Here are some pics from Amie Hoge's wedding this past weekend (6/23). Sorry for the lack of good lighting in a couple of them...don't know what happened. Anyway, Amie was my Delta Zeta "dot" (daughter) from WJC. She is such a sweetie & I wish her all the best!

To Texas, With Love

In light of the recent flooding in the state of Texas (a state dear to my heart), World Vision has set up a site where you can donate funds. Currently, thousands of people have lost their homes & 11 people have died. If you can help in any way, please do so. Here is the link: http://donate.wvus.org/OA_HTML/xxwvibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?section=10025&item=394

The month of birthdays

So, I have finally decided that June seems to be the month of birthdays. Today, is my older bro's (David's) birthday. Granted, it is 11:15 pm, but no worries, I sent him an ecard first thing this morning. Actually, I accidentally sent him 5 but whatever! At least, he knew I was thinking of him on his special day. I'm pretty excited for him, considering he was going with Mary to the Police concert. Good times...can't wait to hear more about it:) Love ya bro & I hope you had a most excellent birthday! Here is a pic of the ol' fella & me at Christmas.

E!'s 30th

Just want to wish E! a happy birthday. She turns the big 3-0 today! I hope you had a great birthday, girl! And I hope this next year (& next decade) is even more splendid than the years before. Love ya, girlie;)

Take Defense

So, tonight (after I took my midterm & was in need of blowing off some steam), I had the opportunity to attend a self-defense class. I hadn't done anything like this since Jewell days, when my sorority (DZ) offered one. However, I had a chance to go tonight with one of my classmates (Cathleen) to Shawnee Mission East High School. It was being put on in Kelsey Smith's honor by Ali Kemp's father & the Take Defense foundation. In light of the recent happenings, I was looking forward to refreshing my knowledge. What I didn't bargain for was the amount of strength and empowerment I felt when I left the class. For all you ladies out there, make the time to attend one of these classes if you have not already done so. It provided great info & techniques plus a good little workout. I have attached the link to get more info: http://takedefense.org/

Life Lessons

I realize that it has been almost 2 weeks since I have posted anything. I do apologize, but to my defense I have had some unexpected occurrences (thus the reason for the blog title). Some of you may already know what has been going on, so just bear with me while I briefly summarize. On June 9th, I learned that I was a victim of identity theft. BOO! (as Ashley A. would say) I lost everything (and then some). BUT, by the grace of God, my funds have been returned. Anyway here's what I have learned:

1. No matter how careful you THINK you are being, anything is possible.
2. Thank God for online banking (otherwise who knows when I would have realized what was going on)!
3. Money can be frustrating, but it certainly makes the world go 'round (or so it seems). Just my luck, every bill seemed to be due when there was no money to be had.
4. Life is ALL GOOD as long as you have a great family & friends. Love you Mom & Dad--you saved my rear:) And thanks Andrew for the quarters!
5. Don't let anything (or anyone) cause you to live in fear.
6. Patience truly is a virtue, a mighty difficult virtue to demonstrate at times!
7. There is always purpose & lessons to be learned...if nothing else, I have been reminded to be thankful for what I have (for there are many others in our great nation & world who have far less) & NOT take any of my pennies for granted!

I appreciate your many thoughts & prayers throughout this worrisome time. Hopefully, someone can figure out who did this (although they don't sound too hopeful). Anwho, thanks again & talk at ya soon:)

Happy Birthday Wilson!

Just wanted to give a shout out to a fellow Ya-Ya, Wilson (i.e. Nicole Swanson)! Today's her birthday:) Welcome to 29 and I hope you are having a fabulous birthday. What a year it will be, momma! Love ya, girl!

Beautiful Babies...continued!

As promised...here are the pics from today. Brett is wonderfully adorable and I loved spending time with the Swanson family!

Congrats to Craig & Nicole (i.e. Wilson for you ol' schoolers)! Brett Lee Swanson was born May 29, weighing in at 7lb 12 oz, 19.5 in long. I can't wait to meet the little guy tomorrow & hug the proud parents! Expect more fun pics tomorrow:) If you want to see some now, click here: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0MbNGjdk2YuJg

Beautiful Babies...all around!

Here are a couple of pics of the Armitage family! Welcome Crosby Vernon Armitage, born May 22...cute as a button! Congrats Tim & Ashley on a handsome baby boy!

Welcome to technology

So, I have entered the 21st century! I am an offical blogger, I love using my I-pod, and I own a PDA. All I have to say is...how did I get along without them?! BUT, technology does have its frustrations. For instance, my brother Andrew had to save my rear last night by deleting extra files on my PDA. Evidently, it's never a good idea to put a program on there twice, which of course I did. And I have no idea how I did it! No worries now...my PDA is working fabulously now! It is such a great invention and sure beats carrying ALL my books to clinical every day!