Update 1

so about 6 tonight Leah left the hospital again- apparently a very, very real like false alarm! not fun for anyone!!

also the paper is coming along, but slowly, i will let you know how things go along.

Julia

We're in Labor!!

YAY!! after two and 1/2 weeks of "it could be any moment" from the doctors Leah is finally in labor with my precious niece, Madison!! So excited! i got a text about 2pm saying that the contractions were about 6-7 minutes apart and pretty consistent so they were headed to the hospital and would keep us informed!! so sad day that Audie and i will not be making it to see an actual birth- but that is good in many ways too, so i'm not stressed!! and we'll be able to head to GA this weekend and help out with the new baby at home, which is even better- no hospitals, and no waiting rooms, and no limit to the baby holding!!! love it! I'll keep posting today- because i'm too excited to not!!

Also i'm in labor of a different kind- a Methodist Doctrine paper!! uhh not exactly a bundle of jov, but a labor none the less! so as Leah is pushing out my niece i will be pushing out a 15-18 page paper that is due on Thursday! I have to get it done by the due date, though i guess Leah is hoping to have the baby before Wednesday is over (tomorrow is the actual due date for Madison) there isn't really a deadline going on. but hopefully by this weekend papers and homework will be all done and i can just enjoy that sweet baby!!!

we'll keep in touch, and i wil be writing a ton tonight in hopes to be done early- through we all know how good i am at procrastination!!

TTFN,

Julia

I'm IN!

So as i sat down the lady told me i had nothing to worry about, because the interview was basically a formality!! and then we chatted for 2 hours!!! how crazy- but really fun, we laughed and cried (really just me- i'm a crier) anyway really fun!! and it makes me want to do CPE like right now!! but i have to wait until Aug. to start!!

but this summer: i get to be in a church!! in DURHAM!!! last summer was amazing experience, but audie and i wound up shacked up in a cabin on a pond in the middle of nowhere NC for 10 weeks while i worked at a tiny church. it was awesome but living away from home sucked- no phone service, no internet, no TV, etc.

This summer i am going to be at a chruch about 20 min. from here, big improvment! i don't know all the details yet, and i'll update ya'll as i do, but pretty much i am pumped to just be able to sleep in my own bed all summer- unlike the twin day bed that i was in and audie slept on the floor on a mattress all summer last summer!

so thanks for all the prayers/ love sent my way today i felt every bit of it!!

now we celebrate!! i hope by going hibatchi tonight!

- julia

MIA

so sorry i have been MIA the last few weeks. I realized while texting Amber last night that because of my lack of blogging i have left many people out of the details of my life.

there are only three weeks of classes left!! and anyone who is in school knows that a wave of papers/ projects are due at this time so that they don't get too close to finals. so the wave hit this week. A 4-5 pg paper for Local chruch in Mission, a 8-10 pg paper for Christian Ethics (both due last wednesday), a 18-20 pg paper for Methodism due this coming thursday! in the midst of that i have gotten a stress (what stress?) induced cold/allergies have hit so i had to stay home tuesday becasue i felt like i had ben hit by a mack truck- but that allowed me to get both papers done by 10 at night rather than 1 or 2 am like usual so that kind of worked in my favor!

in the midst of all of that i preached for my class the monday after spring break (all went well- see previous post) and i had to have a 45 minute meeting with my actual prof. about it. Registration is next week so i had an advising meeting, and Field Ed. placements are made today!! so by five i should now where i will be this summer! also i have applied for Clinical Pastoral Education at Duke Med (2 reference letters, and 13 pages of single spaced answers to questions for the application) in the last two weeks and have my interview today at 3!

CPE is required for many people seeking ordination, but not for me. It's a program that is designed to help prepastors like myself get to know themselves in pastoral situations, through counseling and classroom time, reflective papers and verbatims that are analyzed by classmates and supervisors. it also helps me to learn how to react in pastoral situations. if i get in i will be serving as an intern chaplain for Duke Med. so i will be at the patients, dr. and nurses beck and call for any pastoral situation that they need- usually it is praying prior to surgeries, helping to give death notices to family members after a loved one has passed, or to lead group/individual counseling things- like a family struggling with wether to pull thier loved ones off life support. Overall it is an extremely involving process.

-maybe if Ted Kennedy comes back to Duke Med i can hang out with him!! i get a lab coat and id badge and everything!! i also get a few times where i am the ONLY chaplain present for 24 hours on the weekend- i get to sleep in the on call room and be there all night!!! aahhhh, how cool!!

i have applied to do it this fall and will get two course credits for doing it. so i will take two classes at the div. school like normal and then do CPE stuff for about 15-20 hours a week.

so wish me luck on my interview!! and ya'll have a good day!!!

TTFN- i'll post when i hear anything from them!
Julia

up early

Ok so i worked all day yesterday on my sermon for this afternoon. It was really frustrating because there was something missing and i couldn't figure it out. But i knew it wasn't as good as my last one. This sermon i have to have a conference with my professor about- 45 minutes of 'chatting' with him about my sermon and how it could be better. Stressful- yes!! Add in my feelings of inadequacies means that when Audie said that it was 'fine' i freaked!!! i was totally frustrated that i couldn't get it right and that i had to get up today and give a crappy sermon, when last time i had actually done well. (obviously a fluke). So i polished as much as possible, reworked some things, got specific feedback from Audie and decided it was ok and went to bed.

I got a flash of inspiration at 8 this morning when Audie got up. I was kind of in a sleepy daze thinking of the sermon when it HIT me!! Then i stormed downstairs to the computer to write my lovely conclusion!! (does this happen to everyone? I'm not sure but my last sermon began with a flash of inspiration- maybe it's just me) I feel much better about the whole thing now. I found that missing piece! love when God comes through like that!! God doesn't always show up when you want him to, but he's always right on time!!! love it!!

-hope you get that inspiration you've been waiting for!!

-Julia

spring break!

Ok so i am now back safe and sound in NC and so it is now time for the update of the whole week- keep reading guys this is good stuff.

1. so i visited my parents/sisters/ their sig. others/grandparents until Wed. - did a lot of fun eating/visiting, watched cable!!, and got some homework done.

2. Met hannah (younger sis) boyfriend. they met online and he came to visit/meet her this week. he was nice and not an ax murderer!- though we had our doubts at first we gave him a thumbs up.

3. my bro-in-law Johnny, who works in IT, burst my google analytics bubble. Apparently there are 'google bots' and 'yahoo bots' that regularly check websites to make sure they still exist, and he said that may be why i have random readers in random states just once. I really hope that its not true, but i am afraid it is, boo hoo.

4. Madison (in utero niece) is trying to make her appearance. Leah(sis-in-law) has been put on permanent bed rest until Madison comes because of her blood pressure being sky high- she has a blog too (on the side bar) if you want more info- and then Friday she had a false alarm, but the dr. said that it could be any time now. Audie and i are hoping for another week, because if she goes into labor on Friday we can get there for the weekend, but if not then we don't get to see the actual birth. BUT either way we're gonna go see that girl ASAP!!

5. my girlfriends and i had a slumber party Thursday, so much fun!! lots of junk food, chatting and laughing about everything!! but we went to bed at midnight so it was kind of an old lady sleepover!

6. Audie had off Friday so we hung out all day, including going to babysit a wonderful little girl that morning. We took her to the life and science museum in Durham- WAY fun!!! it was really a cool museum and had lots of fun stuff for kids of all ages, Audie and I had a blast too, we may make a trip of it ourselves next time anyone comes up to visit. I got a great report back from the mom afterward and apparently we're a hit because the little girl was just chatting all about Audie and I all day!!

7. had dinner/West Wing at a friends last night, she had friends from highschool come later on in the evening and we watched videos from highschool!!! so funny, apparently their group of friends just filmed like everything from school projects, parties and them just hanging out! so funny to have a blast from the past- our clothes were SO similar, and we all totally had those random funny moments. I kind of wish i had those things on tape now!!

8. Found out this morning that instead of preaching in class on Wed. i have to preach on Monday!!! AAAHHH kind of freaking out!! but i have a scripture ready to go and have some good ideas so far.

OK i know that was a ton- i tried to not ramble on and on about the random details like i normally do, maybe i succeeded and maybe i didn't. Enjoy and have a great week folks!!

-Julia

hey guys

So spring break is in full swing.

I'm in GA this week and hanging with my mom and sisters!! my g-parents and everyone is over for dinner, the only one who is missing is Audie!!

but he has to work so that stinks! love to all more updates when i get back to NC.

-Julia

AAHH!!

so i just checked Google Analytics and people in other places read my blog!!! i have 'readers' in NY, NJ, CT, AL, SC, MD!! and those can't be explained by me obbsesively checking my blog all day!! also i don't think all the Durham people 'reading' are me!! - high hopes

i just wanted to share that you should come clean if you are a real reader- COMMENT!!!! i want to know who you are!

also i did finish my paper in time, and yesterday got a few good grades, including a sermon, midterm and paper that i ROCKED!!

and spring break starts tomorrow at noon!!

TTFN,

-julia

new additions

ok so after i typed that title i realized it sounded like i was having a baby- but i'm not- my friend Lynds is though!! yay and congrats to her and her hubby!!

anyway this blog post is totally written just to buy me some time until oprah comes on and i have another thing to occupy my time and hep me procrastinate writing that little paper that is due- TOMORROW! ok i'm going to write it but not before sharing some new procrastination tools i picked up this week: This could be helpful to all those who have endless hours in the day to do nothing- HAHA.

New blogs: so i found these two really great blogs over the weekend and thought i would share:

http://pirkleschinaadoption2009.blogspot.com/- this is a blog of a couple who's parents go to Audie's church in Atl. They actually live in Nashville or something where they are both drs. Jimmy and Stephanie have had some infertility issues and so today they are in china hanging out with their new adopted little boy Maddox. they just picked him up today!!! they are also in the processes of trying to do a surrogate mother so be in prayers for them too. I think you have to 'join' the blog to read it, but they are really sweet so it's totally worth the extra hoop.

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/- this is a blog where the woman posts really nasty/ugly professional cakes online! really funny. mostly the cakes have some sort of decoration that is weird, like dead elephants for a five year old's b-day or something misspelled- like 'God Luck, Don' instead of Good Luck. you'll get addicted i promise.

http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/- this is a blog of passive aggressive notes- mostly written by businesses, coworkers or roommates to help keep the peace. REALLY funny. The best are signs that are left and then written on by someone who doesn't appreciate being told what to do in an anonymous note, and then there is another response, etc.

http://icanhascheezburger.com/ - so this one i have looked at FOREVER!! it has funny pictures of cats with captions- it might not sound that funny, but you'll get hooked! it is definitely best to read them aloud in a babyish voice to get the full effect! also there are tabs at the top to link to pictures of dogs, celebs, all kinds of things, sometimes really inappropriate, but really funny at the same time.

http://www.overheardintheoffice.com/ - ok this is a new fav of mine. It is a whole blog of things that people overhear at their offices, duh! but there are links at the top to things overheard in NY, things overheard at the beach, celebrity quotes and things overheard everywhere. Most are just so outrageous that people are actually talking about these things- but then again all of them are completely out of context so maybe they did make sense at one point.

http://www.postcardsfromyomomma.com/ - another new one from this weekend. this blog is of all emails/conversations/ texts/ phone calls from people's moms that are just too funny. My fav is the ones that are like: "i called and you didn't answer so i hope you aren't dead or dying, call me back so that i know not to call the police" they wind up being pretty funny too!!


ok ladies and gents that's all for now, i hope i gave you something to last through the work day!

-Julia

It official

i just got an email from the dean of students of Duke university, the registrar of the div school and the president of Duke U. the first two were confirming that we were having a snow day and that all classes were canceled. Also there is officially less snow on the ground at my house than there was for the whole week in January. Audie went into work two hours later than normal- he had to wait until his door was unfrozen.

SO i am: reading for classes, possibly writing a paper for Wed. or at least starting it, staying in my pjs and eating chewy dips (these are those Chewy granola bars that are covered in Chocolate!!!)

yeah audie and i bought a box of 30 on Friday at Sam's, and i refuse to tell you how many are left in the house- but if anyone has seen a chocolate thief with a ton of chocolate granola bar wrappers let me know!

-julia

snow!

Ok so the snow that hit GA, SC etc. hit us last night. Now snow is more likely in NC, but this GA girl is still not used to waking up to snow. In January- actually on Inauguration day we got about 4 inches of snow. i had gotten an email about the severe weather policy at Duke, and Audie's boss made plans to call them to cancel work.

Audie got a snow day from work- there was more snow in Raleigh so yeah that was awesome. Duke did NOT cancel classes. May i mention that they are idiots!!! (OK i realize that in the rest of the world 4 inches isn't that big of a deal, but come ON) every other school system canceled school, most schools got 2 1/2 days off- including durham public schools. I had my hopes so high for a snow day it was ridiculous- but i was just severely disapointed, completely confused as to how to drive in the snow, so i decided to miss class and take my own snow day- we played in the snow, watched the swearing in, and had a bonus day at home with the hubby. The second day of snow Audie went to work with no problem, and i went to school and didn't have any problems in the snow. The snow actually stayed around for about a week.

So needless to say when i heard the forecast to snow, and got the email from Duke about the severe weather policy, etc. I was not amused. granted last time i had classes at 8:30 and today i have them at 2:30, so i figured a 2 hour delay- the most i was hoping for- wouldn't even effect me.

So when Audie got up to go to work and said that it was white outside i said "well that's great, but i'm sure that i have classes, nothing to write home about." BUT then audie comes running upstairs- DUKE canceled classes!!! so i'm at home enjoying a real snow day- not just one that i made up for my own enjoyment!!! love it guys- enjoy all our snow because it is supposed to be 70 on Friday (again- it was 70 here on Friday too).

-Julia