I kept my promise after all!

Ok so I realized the best thing I can do is write a blog about all the amazing things I am learning about as a doula-midwife and hot topics the girls and I discuss.

I am totally pumped! It's still in the works, but here's the beginning: MISSeducation. www.misseducation.blogspot.com was taken already by someone who made ONE post back in 2007 about britney spears!! Ugh! Anyway, it looks like blogger is going to toss blogs that haven't been updated since 2007 in June, so if this blog goes off well then I might be able to nab the blog address without a hyphen. Cross your fingers! What should our first topic be?

I'm gonna forget everything I wrote two days ago

So, already I am trying to bite off more than I can chew. I am a slave to my creativity and insane drive to do EVERYTHING. T$ and I were laughing about Hyperbole and a Half today and then we casually started talking about how the blogor (thats hip lingo I made up for a "blog author" quick! someone write a wiki article about it so people who don't use a dictionary will think it's a real word) quite her job and makes enough money from her blog to get by. Since i am quitting my job in a year anyway, I thought "I can do that! If I get enough followers now, then I can start making money off of the blog by next year to provide a pretty sweet cushion." Forget everything I said two days ago about just following my calling and not filling my time with a bunch of distractions. This doesn't count... So as I biked home and stopped by the grocery store to pick up my dinner this evening, I realized 2 things:

1. How quickly you resort back to bachelorette behavior when your husband is gone

2. I need a gimmick for my blog

Let's start with #1. So I needed to pick up milk because we ran out this morning. As I was picking up milk I realized I had no plans for dinner so I went down the frozen food isle to see what was what. I picked out a bag of frozen food that had a delicious looking picture on the package, included meat AND vegetables, and said it made 2 servings. I thought "oh great, i'll eat a serving tonight and have left overs for lunch tomorrow. totally worth $6, right?" This is how my bachelorette dinner turned out.

Classy, no?

After having a 2 minute argument with myself about whether to save the last little bits for lunch tomorrow, I ended up eating it all. 2 servings my butt!

#2. So what should be my gimmick? Should I even do this? T$ helped me brainstorm some ideas, which include:

• write about food. is that too done? I kinda already do that.
• have a goal like in Julie and Julia, where I try to accomplish something in a year. For example; I could try to see all of the curiosities in the Pacific Northwest in one year.
• OR I could try to tie this blog into my calling by blogging about women's needs, resources for education, tips, tools, hot topics, things you should know, etc.

To top off my bachelorette evening I am going to bring my laptop to Starbucks, have a chai latte, and try to do some homework because I feel smarter there (and less lonely).

rain rain go away, bring back my man instead

Another business trip for my buddy. He'll be gone until Thurs. I always lack motivation to come home from work when he's gone. I had to bike to work in the rain this morning to top it all off.

I'm actually blogging to stall doing homework right now. I have to complete a lab, a crossword (my fav part), and read 3 chapters before taking my mid term all hopefully before Sat. It's gonna be a busy weekend. Is there anything wrong with doing homework at work?

Last night buddy and I snuck out for some dinner at a vietnamese place down the street that was recommended to us. it was awesome! huge steaming bowls of Pho with duck salad for $7! Jealous!? and to top it all off, there was a large group of vietnamese men gathered around a table near us having rounds and rounds of beers and a good old time. They would make jokes that we could only recognize by the resounding laughter at their table and buddy would turn to me and shake his head, "i just don't get vietnamese jokes"... mostly because he doesn't speak vietnamese. Then one of the older men breaks out into this amazing vietnamese sonnet and sings to his friends. some of them join in singing a phrase or two and at a couple of apparently key phrases they would all raise their heinies and take a swig. It was like something from a movie. I felt like I should be dressed like Ayn Rand and we were in some hole in the wall restaurant near Vietnam in the 50's. I was waiting for the waitress to join in and sing a tune and the old man to get up and dance with her across the restaurant like Fred Astaire. Instead, buddy and I finished our romantic meal, paid the tab, and as we got up to leave, the old man looked at us "sorry for ruining your meal!" we laughed and shook our heads "not at all!" and then he looked at me and sang "you're so beautiful" as we exited. I probably blushed.

Off I go to study neurons and eat green curry from a jar.

Happy Easter!

I am constantly amazed by our church. Pastor Mark Driscoll announced just a few months ago that we would hold Easter at Qwest stadium this year and it was hard to comprehend. Flash forward: i am on stage in a gold robe singing "Christ is Risen" in front of over 17,500 people while over 500 people got baptized. One of the most amazing experiences ever. I have never been a part of something so moving.

This is the video of the sermon. Every once in a while you can see me in the front row of the choir just to the left of the cross.

When Pastor Mark walked on stage in front of me and I saw his timer start ticking away 20 minutes, I thought to myself, "how can he possibly preach the Gospel to thousands of unbelievers in 20 minutes?" Well, he did it. And he did it well. Check it out.

When the music is posted you know I will post it here.

It was a blast. I wish all of you could have been there.

My tear jerking moment: I was walking around afterwards as people were still getting baptized. I saw a young woman get baptized, walk down from the tub and hug a young man who I assume was her brother. I recognized the brother as a church goer. She looked at him and hugged him. Initially he kept a stoic faced and hugged back, and then I saw his face change as the emotions overwhelmed him. His stoic look turned into tears of relief and joy and he embraced her tightly, his shoulders beginning to shrug up and down as the tears began to flow. The amount of happiness he must of felt knowing that when either of their lives end on this earth, he knows he will see her again in Heaven. I pray that I would know that about all of you!

I love you all!

Happy Easter!

a new leaf

So I started this blog to figure out those handful of things that make me happy. I think I have found the ticket. I am really excited. I have been struggling for the past year with being overwhelmed in so many ways and constantly not feeling like myself. I've felt edgy and it's been so hard to feel happy. I feel like there is so much to say about what I learned over the past month, but in summation:

-God is GOOD!

-I need to focus on my calling: to serve women

-I need to focus on those things that are part of my calling and stop overloading my time with everything else

-I am so blessed, and I should be (and can be!) happy

So, I went to San Diego for a Women's Leadership Symposium with a bunch (not all!) of my favorite ladies from college and we had some really interesting conversations. One of which was about birth control. Being someone who concerned with empowering women and ensuring they are educated and well informed I want t make a shout out. Everyone (not just women) should understand how their bodies work. And women, especially, should understand their fertility cycle and how their body works, because 1. its amazing, and 2. it could save your life, you future, and the future of your children and so on.

I'm currently reading "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" its a great book on how our bodies work and how to avoid getting pregnant naturally without the need for pills, barrier methods, or devices. Or, if you are in that phase of your life (which I am not) it also tells you how to get pregnant.

Anyway, that's my soap box for today.