Prayer for Casting Crowns

Holly: I'm writing on behalf of Kelly and I, because she is currently waiting out Snowpocalypse 2.0 up in Lexington, and I'm at home for snow day #3.  

My heart is a little bit heavy today.  I read on my Facebook and Twitter feeds this morning that the lead singer of one of our favorite bands, Casting Crowns, has been diagnosed with cancer. You can read the full story on their Facebook page.  

Kelly and I have been fans of their music for a long time.  Even before we rededicated our lives to Christ six years ago, I can still remember listening to them in high school.  When we were in youth group we saw them at ICHTHUS and I just remember feeling God's presence so strongly and thinking how anointed they were! We were also very fortunate to be able to see them in Lexington last February.  I'm pretty astounded that the story didn't end up on here, but again, God's presence was so strong there.  Honestly in my top five concerts I've ever attended!  I was moved to tears by "Who Am I" (Which, trust me, doesn't happen often).  Y'all...their music is something else.  If you have not listened to them, please do yourself a favor, and please join Kelly and I in praying for Mark.  He is able!  

I'll praise You in this storm
I will lift my hands
You are who You are, no matter where I am
Every tear I've cried, You hold in Your hands
You've never left my side, and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm
I lift my eyes unto the hills, where does my help come from?
My helps comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. 

From last year.  Thrive.

It's a God thing!

Holly: So we're pretty happy this evening.  

 And apparently I am part contortionist.  Anyway...yeah, it's been a good day today! :)

Last night I wrote a post on my VISTA blog about VISTA turning 50 and what, essentially, being a VISTA means to me.  I shared it on my Twitter page as part of a social media campaign raising awareness for this celebration.  This evening I got this:

Yes, that is the AmeriCorps VISTA twitter page linking up MY blog for all the world to see!  They mentioned my blog! Say freaking WHAT? :D

I don't mean to sound preachy, but I can't take any of the credit for this.  It's all God.  He knew EXACTLY what He was doing when He sent me here, and I am so thankful and beyond blessed (and undeserving!!).  I don't know who runs VISTA's social media platforms, but it's humbling to realize that out of all the thousand some-odd VISTAs out there, they chose to showcase what God is doing for me and through me in wee little Berea Kentucky.  It's humbling to realize that people in Washington DC could read this, my own personal blog I started just so I could remember this year.  Yep...chalking this up to yet another pinch-me moment!

Kelly:  For me, my "God thing" most of you already know about, as my Facebook continues to blow up with likes and comments from today's status. Ever since I did clinicals where I work (which was like almost 4 years ago) and ended up on the substance abuse unit, I was like yes. This is the kind of nursing I can do and want to do and would be very happy there. So I'm where I am now and am thoroughly enjoying it while winding through the occasional bumps and valleys and all of a sudden another opportunity for an opening on such unit comes up. Except it's during the day and not on my shift (3-11). On a whim, I apply internally for it, which I did on Tuesday. And this didn't just come out of nowhere; I've been ready for a change in job for a bit now; not leaving where I work, rather just doing something else. Anywho, I come into work yesterday and the scheduler tells me the job is mine once my current position gets filled. I was like....really? I honestly didn't think I'd even get the job. You see, there was an opening on my shift on the same unit back in the fall. I applied for it but didn't get it, which I was pretty bummed about. My state of mind on Tuesday after handing in my application was well if it's meant to be then it'll happen. And it did. And it IS!!! I was talking to a co worker last night (whom I have appointed as my "work mom") and we were like if you work hard and do well it'll pay off. I then said that never in my life did I have anything handed to me; I always had to work for it.

I was reminded of a song from mine and Holly's BME days and some of the simplest words were "with God I can." And for me it's been with God I can....and I just fill in the blank. At our house, we have a God is Good because...board. Last night when I got home from work I wrote because He knows our desires and provides. With God I, we, you, can do what you dream to do. And if you're reading this and are discouraged with whatever is going on in your life, I encourage you to please hang in there. Keep the faith; the darkness and shadows eventually have to go away. You can do it! As for me, I can't wait to see what God has in store for me and this new position.

Joy unspeakable. Faith unsinkable. Love unstoppable. Anything is possible

The Tim Hawkins VIP Experience

Holly: Kind of sounds like it could be a title for an episode of Big Bang Theory...

Well...we are 2 days into the #2015bereasnowpocalypse and, since we are a bit what you'd call snowed in, I'll get things rolling by beginning our tale of when we saw Tim Hawkins live for the second time! 

The date was Friday the 13th (how creepy!!) and we waited outside for about fifteen minutes in the RIDICULOUS cold for the VIP doors to open.  Yes, this time we had VIP tix, a transaction that took place in May of last year! So no messing around with us this time.  We were herded to the gym of the church and were promptly fed Chick-Fil-A.  Yes, actual food! Which, at this time, I shall bring up, upon receiving these tickets, it was told that "hors d'oeuvres" were being served, so we ate beforehand.  Definitely not expecting boxes of original chicken sandwiches and waffle chips, so we shared a sandwich and hated ourselves a little bit more.  After we ate we were taken into the sanctuary where we ended up THREE ROWS behind the stage!  

I know there's a lot of you out there who are Tim Hawkins fans, and if you haven't seen him live yet, you really need to!  You WILL laugh, for the entire 2 hours, practically nonstop.  Bonus: He laughs at his own stuff too!  But what I really love about this guy is that he makes it all about Jesus!  So I guess it's what I would call a win-win situation :)

Here he's doing his song called "Third Wheel."  Look it up on Youtube! :)

 Kelly: I kept telling Holly throughout the night "we should be VIP's more often." It was a lot of fun. I felt like we were right there in the action, being 3 rows from the stage. There's really nothing else to add; it was really funny. A few times I sincerely thought I was going to be sick I was laughing so hard. At the end of the show we got to meet him. He was like "have I met you all somewhere before?" We were like....nooooooo. I then asked if he knew any twin jokes. He said he didn't but knew a blonde joke. It goes like this: 2 blondes were on either side of a lake. One blonde yelled to the other "how do you get to the other side?" Yeah...it took me a while to figure that one out; it was a long day. Finally got it when we were driving home. Ahh well. It was still funny. They wouldn't let us take any pictures, but the church did post some on their website (that sis is perusing right now).

I wrote in my journal the night we got home and was like this is why I go to things like this. Tim said that this world is so...messed up, and we're all just a bunch of terds. Laughter is perhaps one of the saving graces for this messed up world. It gives me hope, seriously. And it's a good and healthy escape. Plus we just like funny things (if you go on our Pinterest we posted a couple of his stuff on our funnies board). And his humor isn't crude; it's laughable! You laugh at it because a, it's really funny and b because it's so true! He mentioned that when women laugh they let out this long sigh at the end of it. I laughed at this then sighed. I was like "oh my gosh, Holly, I just did what he said!" and I laughed even harder. Perfect example of "it's only funny because it's true." So yeah. It was a really great night. I am still thinking about it from time to time. And who better to share this night with than sis? I will close with a comment he said near the end of the show; his purpose for why he does what he does is all for Jesus. It's to glorify Him.

Jesus didn't come into the world to make bad people good. He came to make dead people alive. 

Colin and Brad: Take 2!

Holly and Kelly: A lot of you have started following us just within the last few months, so if you would be so kind as to allow us to indulge in a brief trip down memory lane: So remember way back in the day when we were a bunch of young college kiddos completely stoked out of our minds because we met Colin and Brad in Richmond almost four years ago? (In case you didn't remember....this may help jog your memory).  We thought for sure that this gut-busting night of improvised hilarity would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Make that twice-in-a-lifetime.  History repeated itself last Friday night.  Well...almost.

We packed a bag and road tripped down I64 to the city of Ashland, KY, so close to both West Virginia and Ohio that you can see it.  Yes, the dynamic duo of humor were doing a show there that night, and thanks to our awesome trip-planning-guru of a dad, we scored a nice hotel literally a stone's throw away from the venue.  But not before hitting up local eatery Fat Patty's.  Man oh man, that was one glorious open-faced roast beef sandwich! And our waiter was really nice and super awesome. Once we got to the theater we had to wait a bit for the stage to open. We had to buy our tickets separately, so our seats weren't together initially. Right before the show started though, we orchestrated a plan to move a few rows back to some empty seats so that we could enjoy the show together. So we did. And it was glorious!!!!

The sign! 

It was a really funny show! If you read when we saw them in Richmond, you'll see that Holly went up on stage for a game called "Fill in." Whenever prompted, the stage goer had to fill in an incomplete sentence with a word, phrase or whatever. The results were pretty amusing. Well, this time, Kelly got called on stage for the very same game! (There is a video but Holly has it). Then they did the Sound Effects game, which if you've seen Whose Line is it Anyway, you know how that game goes. But if you haven't seen it, you can figure it out. Anyway, our section got to do Brad's sound effects! (see video below). But it was utterly hilarious; and let me tell you having had the experience it is extremely difficult to come up with something clever right on the spot, know that we have both had the experience of attempting to do so. Then like they did in Richmond, they did the "Crime" game, in which Brad (without his prior knowledge) had to guess a crime he committed, verbatim, with a little help from the audience. The crime was as follows:

He duct taped a penguin to the ceiling, lit a cloud on fire in Paducah, KY at Terry's Polar Bear Shaving & Tires & Tubes with a ping-pong paddle. Ya'll, we are not making this up. And yes they did the mousetraps game again. And yes we cringed a lot. Unfortunately, they did not stick around at the end for meet and greets like they did in Richmond, but that's ok. We still had a really awesome time, and it was great for us to road trip, laugh and enjoy each other's company. The time we get to spend together is a treat for us, and we don't ever take it for granted. God has blessed us with a good relationship in which we share a lot of interests, including lots of funnies.

For reasons we can't explain

Kelly: This conversation we are about to share started yesterday while the two of us were shopping around Richmond. One of us mentioned that we don't really consider ourselves selfish people. I don't really think of myself as selfish. Seriously. And then this led into one thing after another after another, a commonality in which we both stated we wouldn't do what we do if we were selfish people. It's true. I've known for a while that I wanted to be a nurse, but I truly believe that God has called me to be a psych nurse. It is a calling bestowed upon a select few individuals, but I sincerely believe that I have risen up to the challenge. I have a lot of really good days at my job. Things go smoothly, my patients are calm and there isn't a crazy amount of admissions/discharges or both. Then there are those days where I walk into chaos the moment my foot enters the unit. A patient's upset or psychotic, 2 admissions have just come in, one patient wants to leave AMA and other patients are scared of another patient and they don't feel safe. Yet despite those bad days, where I am, what I do...it feels right.

For lack of a better word: Right. I was talking in Sunday school today about how when you find "the one" and when someone asks you how you know it's "the one." And what is that age-old scripted response? Yes, say it with me. "You just know!" I compared that to feeling contented about the path God has you on. The path that God has me on for the time being is the right one, and I know that it is. How do I know? Because I just do. I just know. I feel at peace with the direction my life is going right now. It's a good feeling, unfortunately, it's one that I can't explain. I can't put into words or put my finger on how I know I'm where I'm supposed to be. I suppose that it's something that only comes from knowing God. But when the time is right, you'll know.

Holly: I said in Sunday school today that we bank a lot of our security in what we do for a living.  I remember when I was considering my AmeriCorps position; one of the biggest things that almost held me back was the considerable pay cut.  I kept asking myself "Do I really want to go back to being flat broke all the time again?" I talked to my co-workers at the time and I was sometimes met with less-than-enthusiastic responses..honestly, not that I could entirely blame them.  "Is that what you really want to do?" "Do you really want to make that much?" But what I also remember, as clear as day, is that still-small voice saying: "Don't let this opportunity go." Despite the reservations, yes, even from me, I went.  And guess what? We're not flat broke, and I sincerely have no regrets.  For the first time in I don't even know how long, this feels like what I'm supposed to be doing.  I'm trying not to get wrapped up in the long term, although I'm not being unrealistic: Grow Appalachia won't last forever, I know this.  But it's like Kelly said, I feel at peace with the direction my life is going, and I too can't explain it.  It's God.  It's all God.  I've learned that sometimes, where we are in our lives doesn't make sense to those on the outside.  Guess what?  Sometimes it doesn't make sense to ME either!! But I take comfort in knowing that I serve a God who has my best interests at heart.  My life makes sense to Him, and that has to be enough.  

I'm going to end with this, and it's something I've witnessed quite frequently.  Heck, I've been through it too: Please do not EVER feel like that you have to be "stuck" with wherever you are in your life!  You deserve to have joy and satisfaction and be at peace with the choices you've made in your life.  If you aren't, then change something!  You have that power, and nothing is more draining than being in that mentality of "I'm stuck and I can't get out."  You can, and nothing is more fulfilling than being at a place of peace in your life.  Even if you can't explain it. 

Cats and children: one and the same?

Holly and Kelly: So it's true. They really are similar. At least we think they are. I mean come on, look at those faces? Aren't they cute?!

So the two of us have conjured some thoughts in which our cats and having children are the same. Not that either of us have children, but we've babysat before and many of our friends are mothers of young children and share their children stories...which we are always delighted to hear about! Having said that, here's some of the things we came up with.

No privacy
If you are a guest in our house, please remember to shut the door. Otherwise you might get a nice lap while you're in the bathroom taking care of things. (Yeah...may be a too much TMI, but it's true). In our house when we want a moment's peace, we shut doors....until the screaming and clawing begins. Until the sweeping of feet under the doors start too.

No personal space
None. At all. Pretty self explanatory. The two of us have had computer notes corrupted by random kitty text, or a sudden lap interruption during that really good part in that book or the running of the cats over the couch, furniture, house, laps, etc, causing the occasional spilled beverage or mild heart attack. Or the sometimes tampering of the book, DVD set, or laptop (See below). Get used to bum in the face and swatting your hair/scarf/necklace/any dangling object within their reach.

Wiley's into the Eppes brothers, too. 

Being awakened all hours of the night

Can't remember when either of us had a night of UNINTERRUPTED sleep. Oh, by the way, ever get the feeling someone's watching you? Yeah, it's probably one of them.

Yelling/disciplining/breaking up fights
"GET OFF THE TABLE!" "STOP IT!" "HEY, KNOCK IT OFF!" "PLEASE STOP BODY SLAMMING EACH OTHER INTO THE FURNITURE!" "NO, YOU'RE NOT GOING IN THE GARAGE!" "BE QUIET!" Kitty discipline in our house involves forced cuddling for at least 2 minutes. They hate it.

The teenage years
Cats exhibit blatant passivity concerning your arriving/departing.
"Oh.............................hi.  See you later.  Let's destroy the house while they're gone."

Traveling
2 options. Either take them with you or find someone to stay at the house and take care of them. Lest we forget the Great Traumatic Move of May 2013.  Completely amazed the cops/animal control/the FBI were not called on us due to the excessive wailing coming from Wiley's cat carrier.  We're fairly certain he did not recover.
One last thing: You definitely cannot make last-minute plans.  "Oh wait, the cats..."

Messes
Litter on the other side of the living room.  Yes...the other side.  Downed Christmas trees.  Poo on the floor.  THE BIRD.  A mini-flood in the kitchen.  You name it.

Food 
You were finished with that, right? Because sticking their faces in water glasses/cleaned off dinner plates is the norm. Yoda especially likes eggs, while Wiley is ga-ga for ham. See "personal space"; dinner sometimes gets uncomfortable. Would you like a set of yellow eyes watching with your bowl of soup? Make that 2 sets of yellow eyes...

There you have it! Yet despite the grievances they sometimes bring us, we love our pet babies and we wouldn't have it any other way! And sometimes we use the good times to our advantage in which we get the opportunity to have a little bit of fun.

The sanctity of rest

Holly: Holy smokes, we're already halfway through January!!!

In the midst of basically going non-stop since this year has started, and also because I've had quite a bit of time to myself these past couple of days, I've been thinking quite a bit about rest.  Which I guess is exactly my point...Anyway.  We are a society that thrives on activity: we're going from one place to the next, we're juggling 221 different things at once, we've throw phrases such as "on the go"  and "I'm so busy" into our vocabulary without even thinking twice, and before we know it, it's time to get just enough hours of sleep in order to function, only to wake up and do it all over again.  Hey, I get it.  That used to be me...and to a degree, it definitely still is.  But one thing I've really striven to incorporate into my daily routine is quiet time, that time to just...rest.  I've really grown to appreciate that just in the past few months- back when I was working as a lab coordinator I would get emails and phone calls constantly, most of the time well after hours, and sometimes I felt as if I was shackled to my cell phone.  I couldn't really relax.  But now that I've really adopted the mindset of "leaving work at work" (mostly now because I actually can!!), I savor those precious moments of rest.  For me, I try to set aside a few minutes in the morning, usually while I'm waiting for the coffee to finish brewing: I typically read a verse from my Bible app.  I also incorporate about 10-20 minutes into the evening, as I'm ready to go to bed for the evening.  Again, I read something from the Bible (usually a whole chapter) and sometimes I write in my journal.  My cats are usually there with me, so even then it's not entirely...restful, so to speak.  But lately I've found that if I don't get those few minutes in the morning, I'm really edgy and frazzled when I get into work in the morning, even though I know what I have to do and it isn't terribly stressful.  

I guess the point to all of this is that taking time to rest is extremely important.  It's foolish to expect yourself to just go go go all the time!  So go ahead, read an extra chapter (or two) in that book.  Watch one more episode of that Netflix show you've been binging on.  Turn that alarm off (but please still go to work on time!).  Write, pray, whatever you need to do.  Heck...even God took a day off!  

Kelly: In the midst of writing this, I'm actually quite tired. This is my on-call weekend at work and I've worked 18 hours total this weekend...which actually isn't too bad compared to the last one I did. But it's been a long few days and I'm ready for it to be over. The constant driving to and from is what's killing me. Anyway, so rest sounds like a really good thing right now. My take on rest is different from what Holly described. Lately, I've had this itch of wanting to do "something more" with my time. I've juggled about a zillion and one different ideas of how to scratch this itch, mostly to the tune of finding another job. Not leaving mine, rather finding another job on top of what I already do. I kept telling myself "I want more experience" or "I just need a change," but I think what it is is that I'm just used to being this go go go type of person and when my time off comes I'm just like "why am I just sitting here? I need to be doing something else." And while I've ruled out finding another job, I haven't ruled out like volunteering or something to that nature...if I can just find the motivation. The thing of it is I just...enjoy my off time so much. And you know what? I am finally realizing that that's ok!

I think sometimes we get so stuck in this perpetual trap of having to fill our time with anything and everything because if we have down time then we're missing something. Yeah, I take some time out of my day to read a devotional, journal, pray silently (or out loud), but I enjoy my me time. My me time to read, watch something on Netflix, whatever. I understand that we have busy lives and all, trust me. We have busy lives. But don't forget that God doesn't want us all running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Take some time for YOU.