The Visa Is In!

This has been an eventful day... so I will start at the top!

Early this morning I took Moose to the dog park. We had a fun time, until two husky dogs came and they were bullies. Anyone who knows Moose know's he's a very gentle dog but they kept circling around him trying to make a fight. He was a good boy and just ignored them. But it was still annoying for both of us. Even their owner said the dogs are bullies. Why do people bring their dogs if they can't behave! Its one thing to have them at home its another to actually drag them in the car.... okay rant over! Its fun to socialize with the people and their dogs. Tomorrow I plan on taking him again. 

******THE MAIN EVENT!******

My working holiday visa came through!! So I could legally fly to Australia today and start working (dare I say another life?!?) :-D 

It is very tempting. But I think I will wait a little bit longer. I've spent the rest of the day speaking with travel agency recruiters, wired some money to my Australia bank account, and cleaned mine and Baby Bird's room. The recruiter I spoke with today said that since its getting into winter its getting really slow and it might be a good idea to wait. This work well for me anyways because I was thinking of waiting until January so it would be a new tax year. And it allows me to keep saving money.  I'm looking forward to what the future holds. 

Although there is so much happening evil/sadness in the world I take comfort that Jesus is my Savior and makes up for where I fail. 

Near Apollo Bay, Victoria, Australia 

Sermon of One

Today it was my weekend to work. My first procedure was not until 11am so I was able to sleep in. I did miss church still. After work I went to visit my parents and had a great discussion about world events. When I came home Baby Bird (my niece who's 5) is sick so I sat on the couch and held her. She's not normally very cuddly so it was kinda special to hold her and talk to her. 

After she relaxed more I spent the rest of my evening reading the scriptures (giving myself my own personal sermon). I started out in D&C 88, I've been taking several days to finish the section I want to really understand it. I came to verse 118  And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of  wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith. Afterwards, I went to John and was reading more when a particular scripture again stuck out  Jesus had washed his disciples feet he said to them in John 13:17 "If ye know these things, happy  are ye if ye do them". 

What I learned from those scriptures although my faith is weak keep studying, look for opportunities to learn, and apply what I learn to my life and in return "happy are ye if ye do them". 



This is from my trip to Paris last year, it has nothing to do with this post. 

Life Is Good

Today was my first day as an IPN (during the time I wait to take boards, I'm called an IPN). It's exciting and scary at the same time to start a new job. I have hospital orientation for the next three days. I learned about the Sisters who started the hospital, and the hard work that was put into it. And the values and mission of the hospital. Something that I find very cool, mainly because I've worked for them before, is that they really do live up to their mission and the values. They put the patients and their families first and make changes so that the nurses and other staff can give excellent care to them. This hospital is the really the best hospital the area. Although I'm not looking forward to working on nights; I am looking forward to working for the best. I know that I will learn so much and it has a lot of room for me to grow. I'm still really nervous about working and making sure I know everything. But I know that God will direct. He will assist me in remembering the things I need, in order to care for my patients and be able to learn the many new things that I will have as I embark on this new journey. It's a real blessing also to work for this hospital because I live so close; if I walk it's about 15 min. But riding my bike it's only maybe two minutes.

On another note this video is so funny!

Not A Funny Joke

*****************WARNING I'M ON MY SOAP BOX*****************

I read this joke online today that was so sick. Right now, even as I think about it, my stomach feels upset and the thought that someone could even find it funny. The joke was on a popular website but there was no way to report it as inappropriate. I will not share it with you; but the gist of it was a girl (AS IN A CHILD) getting sexually abused by her father. How can someone find that funny?!? Why would someone even want to share that?!? The thing that I get enraged about the most is because this is something that happens and is horrible, and and the person was making a joke out of it. Sexual abuse ruins lives. Those involved many times don't/CAN'T have normal relationships. They many times turn to drugs/alcohol. Can end up with a horrible STD. I could not even attempt to put up all the consequences of sexual abuse in children, there are many more physical and psychological devastating problems.

"... When a child is sexually abused, his innocence is stolen. Many sexual abuse survivors are ashamed to have already lost their virginity before they even knew what a virgin was. Sexual abuse survivors are deprived of the beauty of the innocent first kiss or first sexual experience. These are losses that need to be grieved".... http://www.ehow.com/how_2131979_loss-innocence-after-sexual-abuse.html?ref=fuel

It is the most disgusting thought of someone who is meant to protect you decides to feed there own physical wants. If anyone touches my niece, nephew, little sisters or future children I will... (I decided that it was not appropriate to put here) go to jail if I need to in order to protect these little ones. But sadly many children don't report it for fear of disappointing parents, or the perpetrator makes threats to hurt the child or family.

Here are some facts:
*One U.S. governmental source counts 78,188 child victims of sexual abuse in 2003. That’s a
rate of 1.2 per 1,000 American children. (That seems like a VERY high number to me)
*The 2001 National Crime Victimization Survey, which only covers youth 12-17, estimates
that 1.9 per 1,000 children are raped or sexually assaulted.
*National surveys of adults find that 9-28% of women say they experienced some type of
sexual abuse or assault in childhood.
All these estimates and others that are available have limitations and should be used with care.
http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/factsheet/pdf/CSA-FS20.pdf
You may ask who does these horrible things, well here's what the website above says on that:
*Men perpetrate most sexual abuse and sex crimes.
*Sex offenders against children tend to be juveniles or young adults under the age of 30.
*Most sexual abuse and sex crimes are committed by people who know the victims.
Acquaintances are most often the perpetrators, followed by family members and then
strangers.

How to protect a child from sexual abuse?
Well I can't put it all here see this website for a complete list: http://www.apa.org/releases/sexabuse/protect.html . Here are a few points to keep in mind. 1) Develop strong communication skills with your children.
2) Make an effort to know children's friends and their families.
3) Teach your children that their bodies are their own. That it is OK to say they do not want a hug or that certain kinds of contact make them uncomfortable.

Another source you may want to look at is the Megan's Law website http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov . My previous residence there is a sexual predator right down the street, needless to say it's also RIGHT next to a school. Do you know who your neighbors are?

God sends us children, they bring an added amount of joy, teach us patience, and we find that we have a greater capacity to love. WE MUST PROTECT THEM.

Can't Sleep

This evening I got so nervous and worried about my NCLEX exam (which is coming up soon) that I finally decided I need to stop thinking about it for a few, so I went to bed at 8pm. Now it's 2am and I'm wide awake. So I'm just going to get up and start studying again.

But before I do that I'm going to share my two cents! I love to go visit my Grandparents. They live a few states over and I go several times a year to visit. There home has a great feeling, I feel so loved when I go to visit. The community they live in neighbors actually talk to each other and not only that they also come over to visit! What neighbors could be friends?!? The thought never occurred, until I'm visiting. I only know one of my neighbors and that's because we went to school together. The people I share the wall of my apartment wall (in case that didn't make since, the people next door) are so grumpy! It's not like we have to be friends, but hey we do live right next to each other, if I said "Hi" the nice thing to say is "hello" or something similar back; instead I get snarled at.

But I digress, the reason I brought up my Grandparents is, my grandma has a picture frame in her house it has a picture of a Shepard and sheep. And says something like "when you can sleep don't count sheep, when you could talk to the Shepard". It's an interesting thought which I have used. In school one time we were discussing how therapeutic prayer is. To just talk to someone about your concerns, worries, and thoughts is soothing. Prayer takes a load off. I can say, "I did this which was good, I did this that was bad, and I'm worried/scared about this" and for some reason it makes me feel better! I don't think I've ever gotten any amazing answers, just thoughts/ideas on what may work.

Another thing about prayer, not only the therapeutic affect, but for me as a Christian, it is a time to talk with my God. To thank Him for saving my soul and ask for His continued mercy.

The Best Things In Life....

ARE FREE!!!!

Today I went out to visit my parents. My little sister "Smalls" has been begging (and at times harassing) me for a long time to come visit so we can go for a hike. Near my parents there are many good places to go hiking. We decided to go hike a mountain. But not just any mountain, it had to be a big one, AND it was very important to be fun! So we went off-roading in my dodge neon and found the perfect mountain. As I parked and looked up I was having a little bit of second thoughts. It was a very large pile of rocks and did not look too stable. But that didn't stop us, we hiked to the top and had the most amazing view. We had a 360 degree view of the valley. The mountain was very stable. It was fun as we tried to find my parents house and looked for my car. We played games. One game that we found fun was looking for where we would live if we were homeless, needless to say my energetic 9 year old companion found some really cool places. I was a little surprised at the lack of wildlife, normally when I've gone to this area before we see birds, lizards, rabbits, and if we're lucky a coyote and if we're not a snake! But not this time we saw a bird and that was it. On the way back to my parent's we realized that it gets REALLY cold at night still and lizards would be sleeping. And birds fly south for the winter.

When we got back to the house, I found out that my mom would be working tonight and that my dad was taking another sister "Red2" to a dance; they said they could use a babysitter. I was overjoyed with this; I got to spend the entire day with three of the coolest kids around. They have so much energy. And they are such good kids. We watched a movie, made dinner, ate popcorn, listened to music, cleaned house, and read from a few books. After the girls got ready for bed I went to each one and was able to get the sweetest hugs and kisses, then they fell asleep extremely fast. My dad came home with "Red2" and they had a fun time. And seeing that I really did need to get back home to go back studying for boards I came back to my apartment.

On the way back it hit me that everything I did today didn't cost anything but time. And it was the most fulfilling day I've had in awhile. We had fun playing and working together. I look forward to hopefully doing it again soon.

We Are The Reason

I love this song. Every time I really think about it I am just amazed at how much God loves me.

Christmas is the best!

I love Christmas! It is one of my favorite holidays. I love setting up a Christmas tree, spending time with family, attempting to cook goodies. I love to sit by the fireplace at my parents home and just hang out/sing Christmas songs/ talk about things that happened when we were kids that my parents never found out about! I love to window shop-- I like for two reasons 1) I have no money so I couldn't buy anything even if I wanted to and 2) I don't have to stand in line to buy something! Another thing I love to go look at Christmas lights, right now there are still more that need to be put up in my neighborhood but the few that are finished are really cool. I love that my heart is softened I and have more compassion for those who have less then I. I love getting Christmas cards. I love to say "Merry Christmas". I love listing to Christmas music. I love reading about the birth of Jesus.

Christmas time is such a wonderful time mainly because it's the time that I seem to remember what Jesus did for me. How He alone loved me so much that he suffered and died for me. And I get this time of year to celebrate His birth and remember Him. Many times in my life I have questioned His existence and I'm sure again I'll question whether or not He's really there. I've come to believe that is the purpose of life. In other words to keep convincing OURSELVES that God is really there, cares about us, and knows what's best for us and that is why we should follow Him. Go see Even Almighty, it's a great movie that really tells how God will give us things that we don't understand to help us and our families.

Last night I got sooooo excited about Christmas and I was all alone in my apartment-- so I surprised my parents by going to their house and spending the night and to today with them. My mother can play the piano so amazingly (if thats the right way to spell it!) I love to hear her play. Well I asked her to play some Christmas songs, just for the fun of it. As she was playing one of the songs I think it's called, Mary's boy child, me and little D started singing along. My other sisters who were around must of heard us singing so off key and were attempting to save my poor mother from the off tuned voices joined in singing with us. It was amazing to say the least... all six of us girls were singing songs as my mother played. Man, I think everyone it that room felt the Spirit of Christmas. I loved it. I'm looking forward to singing Christmas songs with my brothers and sisters and their children.