A day off :)

I just finished an incredibly long shift and I'm enjoying the day off. :) I worked from 10:30 on Saturday night to this morning at 8. Last night I got 8 hours of sleep while at work! Incredible.. :) Especially considering the fact that Saturday night I had a combined total of two hours of sleep. I felt awful Sunday morning and my partner was nice enough to let me sleep instead of checking the truck. :) I was able to sleep for two hours before my crazy pager went off informing me that city status was now 0. I made it off of 4 hours of sleep though and the rest of the shift was good. :)
I work tomorrow and Wednesday and then I should be off the rest of the week. So I'm planning on spending tons of time studying, since not a whole lot got done this weekend. :)

Hope everyone is enjoying this snowy day we're getting. :) Be safe on the roads if you have to be out in it!

2011 is here!

It's already 2011... I have so many things that I want to do and accomplish this year. I have four months till I win a bet with Kayla. ;-) And Kayla, I am going to win. I'm very determined. =)
I'm hoping to get back into my routine of running and so hopefully, I'll be running lots of races! We'll see if my ticker can make it through Hospital Hill again this year... or I may die trying. :)
I'm working on taking the ACT and hopefully after that I'll start taking college classes. Haven't quite decided on a degree yet... but I'm leaning towards language. Hm... maybe I should study abroad... ;-)
Not sure what this year will hold but I'm excited about the prospects. :-) Maybe even Africa will be included. =D

I was planning on writing more, but work is calling and I need to don my blue uniform and plan on saving some lives....or end up sleeping all night. ;-)

Have a Merry Christmas! :-)

Wow, so this week has been slightly crazy. BUT, Elisabeth came home Tuesday and is now recovering at home. :) She didn't end up needing to have surgery done and so we're hoping that in a couple weeks, when she goes back for x-rays, that it will have healed enough that they won't need to do surgery. She has started to move around some and for the last two days has been spending her days in the recliner in the living room. Keep the prayers coming as it's a long road ahead of her.

Life keeps going on and so does work. Yay! Yes, that was very sarcastic. ;-) I do love my job and I am so thankful that I have it. It's amazing to think that I've been working for a year and two months. Weird, right? It seems like the time has just flown by.
I've been thinking more along the lines of going back to school. Pretty crazy since I always said I was never going to college. :-) We'll see how things go over the next couple months and where the Lord leads with it all. :)

I'm sure so many of you are excited about the possibility of having a white Christmas, but honestly, I'm hoping if it does anything the roads will all be cleared. Work really stinks when it's bad weather. The worse the weather, the more we work. I'm really hoping we won't get the sleet like they say we're supposed to either. My family is supposed to come up from Rolla on Saturday and I'm really hoping they can make it. Christmas wouldn't be the same without them.

Well, I should probably make myself useful... ;-) I hope everyone has a great Christmas weekend! :-)

Prayers for my twin!

Everyone, keep Elisabeth in your prayers as she will probably be going through back surgery tomorrow sometime. Not sure exactly on the time yet.
For those of you who didn't know, Elisabeth was working on the helicopter when it crash-landed. All 3 crew members were transported to University Hospital where they had similar back injuries. Here is the news article telling a little about what happened: http://www.sedaliademocrat.com/news/helicopter-29866-landing-crash.html. It could've been a lot worse and for that we are all very thankful. Pray that surgery will go well and Elisabeth will have a speedy recovery. She is quite the trooper and still has her wonderful sense of humor. :-)

Working like a maniac. ;-)

Ok, so again it's been awhile since I posted. I'm working on pictures so hopefully I'll have some up sometime in the future. :-)

Work has been insane. Literally. Actually, it's not been that bad but so far I've worked every day since Sunday. Yesterday, I worked an evening night. Shouldn't be too bad, right? Wrong. I didn't sleep all night and I was asked to work one of the extra trucks today and so went for 30 hours without sleep... Lol, during shift change at 7 I had multiple comments of whether or not I was going to make it through the day, and how very rumpled I looked. :) Of course I'm going to look rumpled after working that long! I think they said that because my shirt was not tucked in and I was slouched on the couch with my feet propped up. I really did feel awful this morning. I was pretty upset with myself for taking the shift, but I hadn't known what our night was going to be like.
Not sure when exactly it all went crazy as we had a fairly good evening shift. I think it was before midnight and we got stuck with a 911 call and a transport out of the hospital to one of the nursing homes. I think I laid down at 1:30 and we got a call at 1:40.... talk about just plain retarded. Oh, and that was our good trauma call for the night. :) Little old lady who was very intoxicated and ran into a parked truck. So at 2 in the morning, when normal people are sleeping, a bunch of us are out in the freezing cold air trying to get this lady out of her vehicle. She didn't have airbags in her car so her head hit the windshield pretty hard... She had a huge open gash across her forehead. First time I can say I looked inside someones head. ;-) So, she was bleeding from that and she had messed up her ankle pretty bad. The hardest thing with getting someone out of the vehicle is that there are so many people in a very tight space. Ok, imagine the front passenger door open and one firefighter holding c-spine (pt is lying with her head toward the passenger d00r and her feet at the drivers side), another in the back seat trying to get positioned to help transfer the patient to the backboard, and my partner squeezed up next to firefighter #1. I think there were a couple other firefighters at pt's feet. I ended up taking over c-spine so that firefighter #1 could help move the pt to the backboard. Just think, this was one of the more easier wrecks... it's a whole lot harder when you're on an incline. It's pretty exciting though too. :-)
Oh, and keeping a straight face sometimes is one of the hardest things when taking care of pt's. :) Especially when they don't talk to you at all and when they finally do they say, "Praise the Lord!" Yeah, this would by my midnight pt that I had. :) I could not get this guy to answer any of my questions and then when he finally said that, I almost died of laughter! I'm sure I looked crazy trying to hold back a huge grin, but at least I didn't burst out laughing. =)
Today wasn't too bad and we just did a couple transports and then they sent us home. I got to the house around 2 and the first thing I did was take a nap. =) Two an a half hours of sleep can do wonders for you. :)
Pretty sure this job is extremely unhealthy for your body. Not always getting a good 8 hours of sleep. Being jolted awake with tones going off. Doesn't sound that appealing, does it? That would be the non-appealing part of the job.... :-)

Skydiving!

So, I finally did it. :) A dream of mine came true on the 14th of this month and I willingly jumped out of a plane. Let me just say that it was the most awesome experience ever and I loved every minute of it! It was totally worth the money and I would do it again in a heartbeat. :-)
There was a group of 8 of us going, 1 from Rolla and the other 7 of us from Columbia. Our jump was scheduled for 10:30 in Vandalia, IL (3 hours away) and so we all met at one of the fire stations at 6:20. Yeah, early morning. I ended up with only 3 hours of sleep that night, but still managed to be excited and happy even at 6 in the morning. Can't say the same for the other guys though.... :) They looked as if someone had died and this was the worst day of their life. Those of you who know me, know that I can get very excited about things and so just imagine me with a bunch of sour, grumpy guys and it paints a perfect picture of our group. Oh, and did I mention they were drinking coffee? Apparently, it doesn't work that early for them... I thought it was rather hilarious as I am so not like that. How can you be grumpy when you're about to do the coolest thing ever?! They couldn't understand how I could be so cheerful that early in the morning... :-) They did start to cheer up some during the drive and by the time we arrived in IL everyone was pretty excited. We were about 30 minutes early and ended up filling out a bunch of paperwork stating we wouldn't sue if we died or were injured. You pretty much felt like you had just signed your life away once you were done.

Watching the training video... Don't they look excited?! ;-)

Ok, so the video was actually pretty hilarious and we laughed a lot at it. Don't think it was supposed to be, but it made us all rather nervous about the statements they were making about the spare chutes and how they are only checked once every 6 months, and how dangerous skydiving can be, etc. :)

Peter and Paul were the first from our group to go. I wanted to be first but we didn't really get a choice as it was our instructors who paired us up.

Brett and Nathan made up group 2

YES, it's my turn...finally! :-)

In our yellow banana suits. =) They really weren't that comfortable either...and once you had your harness on, you really felt pretty stiff. :)

Instructions on how not to die.... I tried to pay close attention. ;-)

Almost ready! =) I was so excited that I'm pretty sure I had a huge grin on my face the entire time. :)

This guy was awesome and gave me a wonderful, first-time skydiving experience. :)

LET'S DO THIS! That was my quote for the day... :)

Walking to the plane.

I had thought for sure that during our short ride to 13,000 ft I would be getting nervous and probably freaking out... But I was rather surprised when I wasn't at all nervous and just couldn't wait to actually jump. :) I really had a hard time not just going crazy with extreme excitement. I don't think I have ever been that excited to do something. :)

And we made it! =)

I really wish I could've had the video or photography for my jump as it would be awesome to have the pictures, but I wasn't wanting to pay an extra 100 bucks for it.
There was about 8 of us (not including the pilot) who were crammed into this tiny little plane... there really was no extra space. And once we were at 13,000 ft we started to lose people. I was the last one out of the plane (besides the guy attached to me), and when it was our turn we moved to the edge and on his signal we rolled out of the plane... very much like rolling out of bed, except you keep falling. :) We then had 60 seconds of free fall... during that time my face felt like it was completely frozen and the pressure really got to my head and I thought it was going to explode it hurt so bad (that's not supposed to happen, but with me, everything's different). It was pretty awesome (even with the freezing face and exploding head), and you never had the sensation of losing your stomach. And then you have a big jerk and your chute comes out (thankfully, ours didn't malfunction ;-). Not sure how long the rest of it lasted, but it was pretty awesome as I was able to steer the parachute and we had a great landing that was so soft....felt better than when you jump off a couch to the floor. :-)

Yay! My certificate that states I successfully completed my first tandem jump. It's pretty awesome. =)

So, that was my awesome skydiving experience.... and maybe I'll do it again someday. =)

"For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."

What if your life were to end right now. All the plans you made- the future you thought you should­ have.. It's over. I have a friend who asked me questions similar to these and it has had me thinking of what death meant to me, what I was like before I was saved, and if I were really ready for my life to be over with now.

Looking back over the years from when I was young, death never seemed to really matter that much to me and I assumed I would go to heaven. And then gradually, I came to the realization that if I did die I wasn't going to heaven. This bothered me... I didn't want to go to hell. Hell is like a nightmare that you can't get rid of and why would anyone want to go there? I remember having dreams of dying and how it scared me so much. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)

I didn't realize it at the time, but God had started working in my heart all those years and was slowly opening my eyes to my sinful nature and showing my utter dependence on Him. “He drew me, and I followed”..­

It wasn't something that happened in a day; it took a few years of God drawing me towards Him, and time spent searching the Scriptures for answers. Until one day, it was made clear to me and I knew without a doubt that I was forgiven and I would one day be with my Savior in eternity. I always think of Christian in Pilgrims Progress and how he gave three leaps of joy when his burden fell from his back. I think we all feel like that when we realize our sins are forgiven and our name is written in the Book of Life. We never again have to be afraid of death.

I am forever grateful for the mercy He showed by dying on the cross for me. I can say with complete happiness that death does not at all frighten me and I look forward to the day that I can be forever in His presence. “When I stand before the throne dressed in beauty not my own; when I see Thee as Thou art, love thee with unsinning heart; then, Lord, shall I fully know – not till then – how much I owe.”

So, after all that's said, what about the things that I really want to do before I die. For me, I would love to go to Africa, tour Europe, have a family, etc...this list could seriously go on forever... But what if I die and that doesn't happen? Why wouldn't God allow me to have those moments? All I can really say to that is, we don't know why God does the things he does, but He knows us better than we do ourselves and He never makes a mistake. His will is always best even if we can't see it at the time. David Brainerd had a quote that I love about one day seeing the Bible and it's mystery's laid open. What a joy we have to look forward to that one day!

I encourage those of you who are afraid of dying to read your Bible - search the scriptures and pray. You will never find the answers you're looking for by waiting to see what happens and hoping your life doesn't end soon.

Someone once told me that we don't really need God when we're young. “You don't need God in your life until you're old.” When you pass by an big accident on the highway what is one of the things that runs through your head? I usually am amazed how quickly it can all be over... some of those people never got a second chance. Or take the 19 year old kid who was hit by a semi.... Months later he has fluid building up in his brain and will probably never be normal again. He didn't know when he woke up that morning that his life was going to take a drastic turn.

You can not go through life assuming that you'll have a few moments before you die to (as some people call it) “get right with God” so you can go to heaven. Life is over so quickly and you can't ignore it forever. It is going to come face to face with you one day and will you be ready for it?

* Be all you can for Christ. *