wow

i have never been so busy in my LIFE!!! i had a great weekend at the wedding/ baptism, but now it's back to work! I've had some great times at work this week, i'm getting better at 'cold calls' were you just go and introduce yourself to a patient/family. This has worked out pretty well.

Today i had my first pretty hard case. I can't give any details, but it was hard to be this family's spiritual rock in the hard and difficult situation they were in. so your prayers would be greatly appreciated!! also this weekend I am on call for the first time. That means for 24 hours i am the only chaplain in the whole hospital! AAHHH!! i hope it goes ok.

in other news i spoke with my DS today, and asked him about if i could put off ordination for a year and do a chaplaincy residency for a year. He was very supportive. I'm still not sure if i will do that or not, because if i do that means that we have to stay in NC for an extra year. But there is a bit more security in us doing that because audie has a job that he likes, i would have a job that i like, we're happy with where we live, etc. the only sad part is that most of our friends would be moving back and we would be staying for a while. what do you think? is it crazy to put off ordination for a year? my DS seemed to think it was ok, and then i'll try for ordination in 2011. wow that seems so far away.

Ok that's all for now- i have TONS of homework to do because i was off doing great things all weekend.

Julia

today:

today I had poppyseed dressing on my salad at lunch. When i got in my car at 5:30 i realized that i had a poppyseed in my teeth. Why o Why can you not tell me i have something in my teeth when i am talking to you?

today i booked tickets to go see my family for Christmas! we're going to Baton Rouge, by way of New Orleans!! we got two round trip tickets for $420 total, for the week of Christmas!! i love good deals

today i looked at blogs instead of cooking dinner and then rushed to get something together so i wouldn't have to admit to the level of my blog addiction!

Today i 'paper-cut' myself on a CD while driving!

that's all!

Julia

I LOVE my Job!!

So can i tell you guys that I love my job!! I'm working as a chaplain for the Labor and Delivery unit at a hospital. I have completed my first week! I worked 12 hours on my floor, directly working with some awesome nurses, doctors, and other hospital folks. I also made 9 pastoral care visits!! most were just routine visits where I simply introduced myself and told them what we chaplains are here for. But I got to pray with two lovely families/ ladies. So i also spent a good amount of my time charting all that I did and i spent about an hour on the phone with IT people trying to get computer access for different things (doesn't that happen every time you start a new school/job!) Anyway! it has been awesome so far. it's not just good times though, there are some families that have experienced some deep loss and are in a good amount of pain when their babies have to be in the ICU or stay when they get to go home. It's a really hard job, but wow do i love being with these people in their happy and sad times, and bringing the name of the Lord into their days!

So another thing that i am really excited about is that in a week one of my BFF's is getting married!! and then a month later another one of my BFF's is getting married. The really cool pat of both of these weddings is that Audie and I are very good friends with both people so that always makes the wedding better! also i'm excited because we won't have to drive a mega long way to the weddings so we can stay as long as we want and the receptions. I hate having to leave before the couple does, and the last few weddings we have gone to it seems like we don't get to stay too long because we have to get back for some reason or another.

So classes also started back this week, and they look good. The chaplain classes I'm taking along with my time on the floor are going to be tough with a lot of work, but it seems like my other two will be ok!

alright that's enough for now, i'm going to go sleep and rev up for Friday! i also have to work really hard this weekend to make up for the fact that we're going to be in ATL for five days for Jessica's wedding and my niece's baptism.

Also on that note- our niece's parents (audie's sister and brother-in-law) asked us to be her godparents. What does that mean to you? everyone i have asked says something different and i'm not sure what they have asked us to do! Also Leah- if you are reading this i really want know your opinion.

TTFN-

Julia

my aassignment!!

Oh my lordy ya'll i know i haven't posted in FOREVER!! but you know how it goes, and i'm so sorry i've been too busy for blogging.

I just wanted to pop in and tell ya'll i'm busy and to forgive me! i started orientation this week at the hospital where I'm a chaplain. I'll be working there this semester 20 hours a week and also taking two classes- Evangelism and Christian Worship. but this week we're doing orientation with the hospital all day every day!

so far we've just been finding out where things are and basics and we'll be learning a WHOLE lot more the rest of this week. Today we selected our units. I'll basically work around that one unit of 32 beds or so, answering to the pastoral needs for any patient is in those beds! So i'm excited because I am assigned to the Birthing Center!! where most of the other chaplains will have more somber and hard emotionally driven areas, i get to spend my time with ladies in labor, their families, and thier babies!!!

TOO EXCITED about spending my time with the labor and delivery patients!!!

TTFN,

Julia

annifestabuel

so yesterday and today make audie and my annifestabuel!  so audie and I's first date was on July 1st and then we got married a year later on June 30.   So we refer to these two days as our annifestabuel (it rhymes with fuel in case you were wondering about pronunciation) We got the idea from a friend of mine and her ex who had a diagreement over when they're first date actually was so they celebrated both and called it annifestabuel.   It works for us. 

this year we pulled out all the stops and both went to work all day yesterday!  when working at the church Tuesday becomes my busiest day, because i lead bible study in the evening.  We don't get home until late and i plan our discussion all day + yesterday i made some pastoral visits and went to a VBS meeting.  all went well.  

Today for annifestabuel we're celebrating by me doing laundry all day and audie going to work again!  i know we are some wild folks!   

but we're going on vacation for a week starting on Friday afternoon (as soon as Audie gets off from work, so pray for a slow day!)  so we have got to clean our house and pack and a million other things that need to happen!  So i'm spending the next three days cleaning so that when we come home from vacation we have a clean house.  

i'm really excited about seeing all my fam for vacation, and more importantly having a week where i won't have to do anything work related.  

well TTFN, 

Julia 

i think i created a monster!

ok so after i posted about how amber had not posted in a while, then she posted again!! So not to be outdone, here's post number 2 of the day!

By the way audie if you read this blog, please act like you are surprised with your present in about 30 minutes when you get home! i worked really hard to make sure that you had no clue that it was coming to the house today, so if i screwed up by posting on my blog about your gift i'm gonna be pissed!

almost as pissed as i was when Jillian kicked off Jake the Pilot, but it's all good it looks like he comes back swinging this week!!

Julia

don't freak out!

the world is not ending just because i'm posting for the first time in about forever.
Let's just say that Amber over at Tweet Tweet Chirp Chirp was basically my excuse for not posting for a while. I kept saying to myself, well i know i havent' posted in about a million years, but she hasn't posted in about 9.6 million so it's ok. Surely i'll get back on the horse before Amber does! Yeah right, amber posted earlier today, so i figured i needed to get my act together!

so what's been going on?? well i started my chruch interneship, that's been going great, but making me much busier than i though i would be. this week is definitely my busiest so far.

We're going to a wedding this weekend! so excited to see two good friends get married. This will be the first wedding i have gone to in a while that i'm not in, so it should be great to just observe things!

Audie and my anniversary is this coming week. 2 years of marriage is kind of crazy. I can't believe that we've beeen married that long, and at the same time it seems like we've been together forever. it's timeless, like any great relationship!

For our anniversary Audie got me a Kitchen Aid stand mixer! i have totally wanted one forever, and so it was really nice to get one! last year we didn't get each other gifts because we were kind of strapped for cash, we just went out for a nice dinner. This year we're giving each other gifts, but not going to dinner together specifically to celebrate.

Also we just got cable, internet and dvr set up! another reason to post, because i can do it from a internet connection that i paid for! so pumped!

so i'm going today to get audie's present for our anniversary, so excited about surpising him with a macbook pro laptop. We're replacing our old desktop computer. We're going to donate the old one because it's still working, but not working good for our puporses. Since you get an iPod Touch for getting a laptop at the Mac store with your student discount, he's getting both as a surprise!

ok that's enough for now, lots of love folks!

Julia

bachlorette thoughts

the bachlorette last night was pretty great! i have started to like some of the guys and really dislike some of them. so Jillian here are my thoughts on some of the guys:

Jake the Pilot: i love him so far! i really liked how goofy he was on their date last week, and how he wasn't afraid to look kind of stupid in front of her. also you could tell that he was nervous- too cute! so we'll see how things work out but i think that he's my front-runner right now.

Kyptin- I'm not sure if that's how you spell his name but i really think he is a cutie! i think that he's just an all around nice guy, and so i want him to continue!

Wes the Country music guy: so i know that Jillian really thinks that his singing is really sweet/sexy/cool. But i disagree! first off to the producers: stop showing the same part of that song to us!! if you are going to continue to show him singing the same freaking song over and over then show some other parts of the song!! please!! Jillian- don't you think it's a bit strange/weird that this guy's song is so similar to a garth brooks song? also do you think it's weird that he only plays his own music and not anyone else's? he just seems like he doesn't have any other qualities than his music. i think it's a bit fake feeling, and some of the other guys think he's just here for his music, and i agree.

Tanner the foot guy: this guy has a weird thing with her feet! it is getting a bit ridiculous!! i mean i get it that some folks have things that they really like on a woman's body, but come on, talk about something else! during last night's episode she put her feet into his lap (i think adding fuel to the fire) and he could barely string together like 4 words he was so distracted by the loveliness of her feet! WEIRD!! i mean if a guy is a but/boob guy that's not all he talks about- so he needs to get it together and get in the game 'cause we're getting a bit tired of the foot thing.

Dave the angry guy: So at first i really liked him because he got so nervous the first night he really forgot what he was supposed to say, kind of cute! but now i have reconsidered!! he reminds me of all the nasty/disgusting/mindless frat guys i knew in college, and the stupid/cocky cops/military guys i know now. i just think he is full of himself!! and his anger issues are quite concerning- because i don't think its ever ok to even think about beating up another person- much less voicing that desire outloud in a real conversation! i think that last night he had way too much to drink, and got angry over the stupidest thing- the other guys that are participating- he knew when he signed up for this that there would be other guys involved, so you can't get mad now!

Juan- now there is a lot of controversy about this guy 'cause Dave the angry guy got all pissed at him because he didn't think that Juan was being for real, that he was acting fake. Now i disagree with how Dave went about voicing his concerns- see above! - but i kind of see what Dave is talking about. Juan is just too calculating. every time he approaches another guy to pull jillian away he brings her another drink, or a blanket. he also always has a line about her dress, her eyes and the rest of the stuff. i mean i appreciate the thoughtfulness, etc. but he's just a bit too slick for my tastes! i like a guy that allows the imperfections to show at least a little bit. He's just oily feeling and a little fake.

ok so not that my oppinion of these guys is what matters, but you know i have to do the commentary to the show that i love to watch, and about those boys that i just love to hate!

so hopefully next week will bring more drama- i love the confrontation between juan and dave this week- though i want to know how jillian didn't get wind of all that happening- and i wish some of these guys would speak up about hwo they feel about these crazy guys! apparently next week they call out some guys who have girlfriends back home! oooohhhh i love drama filled summer reality TV!!

so loving the summer,

Julia