Friday, August 29, 2014

4th time the charm?

Another attempt was made to start an IV line
my lovely assistant
So, I got a blood return!
aaaah! too much blood, too much blood!
alas, I could not thread the catheter. That combined with forgetting to take off the tourniquet and I had a bloody mess.
Maybe the 5th time??
Other events of this week were making these cookies that seemed to disappear
Becks and I went on a nice walk and saw this funny door warning
and other than that, feeling very busy. I'm back to work part-time and back to school which will be VERY busy last 8 weeks. Tons of homework, reading, group projects, computer tests, papers...

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

#icebucket challenge

So a week ago I kept seeing the ice bucket challenge things popping up on facebook and thinking, gee I hope no one nominates me. Liz and I even texted back and forth about how it was kinda like those chain emails that you had to forward to 5 people or you'd be forever cursed, and the social pressure to do it, etc. That same day my brother nominated me. (thanks Joel! she said sarcastically)
And I wasn't going to do it in 24 hours because (ain't nobody got time for that) I was working and going to a wedding in the evening, so yeah. But I'm glad I took some time to think about it.
The challenge has been amazing to bring awareness to a terrible disease ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) a progressive deterioration of the motor neurons that eventually leads to death. And, incredibly, $94.3 million dollars has been raised to date since end of July mainly because of the challenge. Not so amazing was learning that some of the research is done using embryonic stem cells (although you CAN specify your donation not to go towards that). And then of course, research/testing being done on animals. However, if in the long run it helps humans..... hard to argue with that.
And while I was thinking about all this stuff, I saw this meme
and this picture
This post is not meant to shame anyone, raising awareness and giving financially helps towards finding a cure (or prevention) for ALS. But it got me thinking, and that last picture really struck me.
So I decided this time around I'm going to put some money towards helping a child in another country be able to have some water to drink. Something that we take for granted every single day.
This time around I'm going with an organization where 82% of donations go towards projects and programs, I think that's pretty good. I read this about the company: "The 410 Bridge’s mission is to enable the self-developing capabilities of a few of the world’s poorest communities by uniting and effectively mobilizing the body of Christ. Through holistic, redemptive, community-centered partnerships, the 410 Bridge seeks to bring about radical improvement in the health and spiritual growth of communities in the developing world. 410 has helped over a hundred communities become sustainable and serves nearly a million community residents." And I learned that $0.60 provides a person with clean water for a year. Incredible. I can't even fathom life like that.
So yeah, an opportunity to be able to impact another person's life, be it through funding science and researchers, or building wells in other countries, it's great to be able to get behind and support that. So thanks again Joel! (sincerely this time :))

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

one wedding and a bike tour

My friend Kim got married on Saturday!
Miss Jill was a bridesmaid
I'm going to have Kim and Louie write our vows for us, they were good
it was a beautiful day
it was a fun time celebrating with our friends. The next morning was Jill's bday. She wanted to go on one of those bike tours of Detroit.
We did the Automobile/Industry tour. I was a bit skeptical at first, but it ended up being pretty cool. We biked 13 miles total and made several stops for the tour guide to show us stuff.
this is actually the Packard plant where the cars were made. We are getting married at the grounds where they were test driven and repaired. That was kinda cool.
And now I'm back in school. So much to do! Today is the first day of afternoon clinical, I made this breakfast/lunch thing with lots of mom's garden veggies
mmm, breakfast of champions!

Saturday, August 23, 2014

busy week

lets see if I can just upload my pics from my phone....
of course not... ok, one at a time....
Doug and I went up north last weekend to see his friend get married. We stayed with one of my uncles and on the way to church we saw a beautiful sunflower field
we also walked a bit on the beach before his friend got married
it was overcast, but yet we couldn't stop squinting!
this week just flew by with wedding stuff and getting ready to go back to school. One evening Doug and I went to my old alma mater for a prayer walk for InterVarsity. It was cool to see the new buildings and stuff going on at school. I remember starting there at 17! So excited and young. It feels very different going back to school at 33!
what was even more awesome was to pray together and hear Doug's heart for God and for the people that He longs to reach out to, sigh.... love it
And last night we went to Matt and Rachel's where she prepared a mediterranean feast. Homemade fattoush salad, pita and homemade hummus, some sauteed veggie dish (not pictured) with garden veggies, grilled steak skewers, rice and sauce, and later homemade peach and cherry crisp with coconut whip cream. Wow. It was good. It was great to catch up with them and talk and play some board games together. Fun!
Doug has been doing some things to make his home more "wife friendly" for me to move in. The house is on a crawl and it isn't insulated, and in the winter it is pretty cold there, especially your feet on the kitchen floor, brrr! So he just bought a lot of this styrafoam board thing to put up under the floor (from the crawl) and some other plastic barrier thing to lay on the ground. I love that he's doing that to make me more comfortable :) I can't wait to be all settled in and having our friends over for dinner soon!

Thursday, August 14, 2014

notes and eats

The other morning I walk out to my car at 6am to go to work and I see a note on my windshield. I get in the car and read this:
And yes, I was slightly offended, or rather, irritatingly amused. There may be some guilt of the parking example on the right, I back my car in to the spot and don't want to scrape the curb so I might not be all the way in, but I do NOT park crooked like that middle guy! And even if I did, the spots are larger than most spots so who cares. Who is this parking critiquer anyway?! The whole thing was kind of creepy.
Otherwise another good busy week. Doug and I met up a couple of my cousins at a vegetarian restaurant and then went to see a documentary about the Nuremberg trials. It was interesting.
I don't know if people know this already, but an umbrella also doubles as a way to sneak a take-out container of delicious peach crisp, complete with icecream, into a movie theatre...
Doug and I also picked a church for the wedding! It's not too glamourous inside, but it works, and most importantly it will let me bring in my pastor to marry us. Yay! He's great.
Then we drove up to the place we are having our reception and looked at it again. It's so beautiful, I kind of wish we were getting married in the summer. But my favorite season is fall, hopefully it will be nice in November still. Not counting on it though, it has been a chilly summer!
I get the feeling there are a lot of variations of what seems to be Doug's favorite pose in my future...
And I made my favorite veggie burgers again. This time Doug baked us some sweet potato fries and we had green beans from mom's garden
And again tonight with a pickle and corn on the cob. I have always loved my corn so peppery that my lips are tingling afterwards, mmmm
And then tonight I baked some chocolate chip cookie bars with cut up pieces of dark chocolate I got for my birthday. I have been making lots of vegan cookies lately, but they ain't got nothing on these. Real butter, white flour and sugar, eggs, and lots of chocolate, mmmmm

Monday, August 11, 2014

life lately

Doug and I have been so busy planning. I go back to school in 2 weeks and I'm not ready! I feel like all I did was work this summer. I did go to CO and FL, and have one more weekend up North this weekend, but seems like too much work. And crazy, I'm working harder and longer than at my law job and not making as much money. That stinks. Oh well, good for the resume building and future so it's worth it.
Doug and I checked out some suits last week
no hats!
He wants to still check out another place, so we have to do that. We also went to sample a caterer and I'm glad we did. They weren't great. Even the rolls were not that great, if you can't make a good roll, that makes me very skeptical! So now trying to arrange to meet a couple others. I really was hoping to have this out of the way before school started.
We also planted little pumpkin plants and gourds for our table decorations. The packet said they grew in 109 days and I think I planted them at like 106. So we'll see. Maybe they'll be small?? If it works at all I save some money, if not, I only spent $3 on seeds. And maybe I'll have a late November gourd/pumpkin sale of my own! haha
I was growing these in the sunny spot at the condo on top of some electrical box, but they went up to be transplanted to mom's garden. Grow little babies grow! We also planted some at Doug's house, so maybe we'll get some. Fingers crossed.
One thing I noticed that I loved was Doug and I were planning on meeting at his house to carpool somewhere and he said "see you at home" awwww.... it's our home already!
We also had a nice date night this week where wedding planning was limited, yay. He came over with belated birthday flowers
And when we came back after walking Becks and picking up a library movie, we came back to this nice surprise
awww, I'm going to miss my roomie!