Car Talk

Kelly: Today Holly and I were talking about this past week and what has gone on. These conversations occurred driving home from church as we headed out to dog sit for a couple from church who were out of town this weekend. Anyway, this past week has had a few bumps for me. On Tuesday as I was heading out the door to church choir, I received a phone call I was not expecting. To make a long story short, because of some nursing skills I had failed to not complete yet (the day I originally intended to complete them I was sick. Boo), I was pulled out of clinicals until I completed them. (I'm completing them this week and will be returning on site this Thursday.) Anyway, this news upset me. I became angry, threw my phone, said a few choice words, cried a little, but still went to church choir like nothing happened. Prayed a lot to God that night, cried myself to sleep that night, was questioning why this was happening. I woke up Wednesday morning, eyes sore and not ready to face what was coming. But by the end of the day, my mindset had completely changed. Funny how that works, isn't it?

As I continue my walk with the Lord, one of my hang-ups I'm still trying to work on is control. I tend to let myself get out of control when things...don't really go as planned. I was talking to Holly about this regarding what happened Tuesday evening. I told her now that that has happened I realized that now I acted and said things that did not reflect that God is in control. Yet I have the audacity to claim that I follow a God who controls my life and everything about it, yet I let myself go out of control when something I wasn't expecting happens. Then I think....well I shouldn't have done that or said what I did. Smack. But as we continued to talk, we both came to a realization. These things happen. A few bumps are going to happen. God allows these things to happen and it's up to us to figure out what to do. He gives us the freedom to choose whether or not to scream, cry, throw things or to lift up our hands and say "God, take it. I'm giving it to you because I don't want to depend on anyone but you." I'll admit; sometimes it's hard to make that choice because I think in the moment we WANT to be angry, hurt, frustrated, upset, or sad. And I'm not saying that's bad. But I think that if we continue to let those feelings grow and hold them in, then that becomes bad.

I'll close with this; today Pastor Kevin talked about the two greatest commandments in the Bible (Matthew 22:37-40 for an FYI). We are to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. Something that he said....just put everything into a new lens to look at. "You can fail at your education. You can fail at your business. You can fail at your financial goals. But if you love God with all that you are and love your neighbor as yourself, then you have done what you have been called on Earth to do." Or something close to that. All I can say is sometimes things happen that we don't expect. But if we claim to carry the name Christ, we can't let the love and joy He's given us ruin that! It's something I'm trying to work on. Challenge accepted.

Holly: One of the big questions that was asked was "Do you ever feel like a failure?"  I think,  without even hesitating, Kelly and I answered "Yes".  Because, from the outside looking in, I'm not accomplishing much with my life.  I'm almost a year out of graduating from Berea.  The longest I've held a job (to date) is six months.  Since losing that job I have yet to find another job that has anything to do with my major (Biology, for those of you living under a rock).  That was in November of 2012.  It is now almost March of 2013.  So what am I doing now? I work at Old Navy.  I'm lucky to get three shifts a week.  Yep, this Biology major graduate from Berea College is working in retail.  Folks, I have to admit that in more instances than I care to admit, sometimes I drive up and I wonder aloud "What in the WORLD am I doing?  Why am I doing this with my life?  How has my life ended up in this way?"

But there is so much more to life than this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And today reminded me of that.

Honestly, my life have gone in directions that I couldn't have even anticipated, and yet, I finally feel like things are coming together.  I sincerely do my best to share love with others; be accepting instead of refuting, laughing with my co-workers who come from such different walks of life than I do, offering a smile to a stranger.  And God has been way too good to me to not love Him!  It's God.  It's all God!  And I'm doing my best to have faith in Him and to trust in Him despite my circumstances.  I'm not saying that all days are cake, but it definitely does change my perspective on the way I view hardships and things that come my way.

I know some of you out there are questioning as to whether your life has meaning, purpose.  Let me close with this: Toward the end of the message this morning, Kevin said that you are either good soil or bad soil; meaning: Has your walk with Christ changed because of someone you know, and vice versa?  Please know that I GUARANTEE that you have influenced my life in one way or another, and I just wanted to say thank you.  I sincerely pray that I will influence someone's life just by me being in it.  It's time for our society to be selfLESS, not selfISH.  :)

Potpurri post #7

Holly: Dryer just finished.......hurrah, my life is so exciting! lol.

I've started on a bit of a painting expedition; I'm working on a hobbit hole.  For those of you that are Facebook friends with me, I will keep posting pictures of my progress, but for those of you that aren't, I will post a picture of the finished result.  I'm quite enjoying it...I used to have an artistic side when I was younger but it sort of went dormant after high school/into college.  Kind of nice to rekindle lost arts; sorry for the pun!    

We just spent the weekend with some friends; a few we hadn't seen in over a year.  It was nice to get back together and laugh and be stupid, just like old times.  Since I'm not working every day and the last few of my Berea friends are graduating in May I'm going to do my best to be a campus frequenter and just hang out with some good people.  Good coffee is optional.  Speaking of working, yes, I am still at Old Navy.  My three month review is coming up soon, hopefully I will be getting more hours.  In previous posts I mentioned quitting, but it's amazing how God takes your situations and changes them for the better.  While I am still looking for more full time work (and honestly, I hate to play this card, but something that pays a little bit better), I fully intend upon staying at Old Navy for as long as possible, even if it's just working on weekends. The people are SO wonderful and the atmosphere is fun and energetic.  So if any of you wayward travelers happen to stumble in the Hamburg Pavilion area in Lexington, swing by...I'm usually in the back in the fitting room. ;)

Life is just really really swell right now.  I'm optimistic about the future and some kind of big changes that are coming, but yeah...just learning to trust God, make the most of what's given to us, and just relaxing and enjoying each day that we're given.  I guess I should go make the bed.  I'm slowly turning into an almost 23-year-old housewife.

Kelly: I'm sitting at work right now, trying to get together music for the nursing pinning ceremony. I heard a consensus about a few things and then it was just ;ewrgkjads;lgkjaeoriu49p38q759348utaj;ogklj;ldsfkjga;gj;s;dlfkja;slkdfja;slkdjfas;ldkfj. Hurrah for clarification emails!

Anyway, so that's been fun. It's these little things that are reminding me that I am almost done with this college thing! It's fun, it's sad, it's scary, but it's exciting overall! Tomorrow we're going to order our pinning ceremony scrubs!! Clinicals have been rather tiring; I'm halfway done on Thursday and I get my wonderful midterm evaluation. I've learned a lot, come home with some wet shoes, met some awesome people, and learned things about myself that I never thought I knew. So yeah. Wish me luck! And we're in the process of moving in May! More space and awesome people. You know, despite the somewhat craziness going on, I really can't complain. I can't. God has been really good to me. Sure there have been quite a few bumps down this road, but I can see the light at the end of this tunnel! He has gotten me this far and He'll carry me until the end! It's close; it's really close! Ok, enough about that. So much else to look forward to soon! That's all I have for now. Cheers all


Updated 2/19/13: As promised by Holly, the finished Hobbit hole! :)

A Bad Egg

Kelly: On the way to campus this morning, Holly and I were talking about bad days. Like I said in an earlier post from Facebook this week, it had been no surprise that I have been sort of a grump these past few days.   That has since changed and I'm not a grump anymore, but I found myself wondering why I was grumpy. Well, I had a lot to do in a short amount of time, things at work were a bit hectic as we were trying to get ready for our open house tomorrow night, and of course my clinical schedule. That in of itself is like having an additional job on top of my already job. Anyway, I soon realized that it was a lot of little things that were happening throughout the week but not on the same day. Murphy's Law kind of week I suppose. This morning I was a bit on edge as well, as I haven't been feeling the greatest all day. Going to the doc tomorrow. But I was talking to Holly and I said "you know, despite all that's going on,  I can't even remember the last time I had a bad day." Then it had me thinking...what constitutes a "bad day?" Is it the whole day or just a part of the day?

For many I know, it's a part of the day. For a while that was my definition too. There's one tiny part of the day that goes sour and then boom. The whole day suddenly sucks. After a while though, again, like many of these posts with the label "perspective," mine changed. Why do we always let one moment ruin our entire day? WHY? It's like getting feedback on a paper or presentation; there's one negative comment and a lot more positive comments. But what one do we always focus on? The one negative. And then we dwell on it and dwell on it...or at least I do. What is it about negativity that attracts us? So what I'm trying to do is not let the one negative thing constitute as a bad day in my book. Why let one small bad egg ruin the rest of the batch? It doesn't have to!

Holly: Trust me, this used to be me.  One thing would go wrong and I'd be all "well that's it now today just sucks!"  Life doesn't have to be that way.  We are not in bondage to all those stupid little things that go wrong in life; we are in control of how we deal with them, and I think the way we deal with such things says a lot about our character.  You can completely lose your crap, or just take it in stride, let it go, and move on.  Because in the grand scheme of things, we really don't have it as bad as we think we do.

Why are we so ingrained on focusing on the bad, but not the good?  It's like you get a review at work or something, and you can have 32345 GOOD things said about you and then ONE bad thing, and what do we immediately focus on...the ONE bad thing?  Bad things are usually not personal, they're usually someone on the receiving end out to get you.  Seriously.  Trust me on this one.

I'm with Kelly on this one...I honestly can't remember the last time I had a "bad day".  Want my advice?  That one thing someone says/does that gets under your skin? Forget about it.  That little snide remark someone made about you? Laugh it off.  That person you're holding a grudge against?  Let it go.  Negativity is POWERFUL...I believe any time that we are mulling in our negative junk we are being robbed of time that we could be spending laughing or spreading positive energy to others...or just simply being freaking happy!  Don't ever let anything or anyone steal your joy in life!  We are so much more than that!

Schtuff twin girls say

Holly and Kelly: A while back ago, Holly and I were talking about the fact that we sometimes say some utterly stupid and ridiculous things that really make us laugh. I don't remember which one of us suggested it, but it was suggested that we keep a list of some of these silly/stupid things and post them on a blog to make us laugh. So here you have it; a collective list of our funnies over the last almost month or so:

"You rolled over, Yoda. I'm so proud of you!"  ~Holly

Kelly: No emails for the last 2 hours.
Holly: That's an abomination.

"Richard Armitage sort of looks like Jesus."  ~Holly

"No. Nursing students only. You're not allowed in the club." (Kelly's response when Holly asked to go to a lunch with a convo speaker the dept sponsored.)

"EXCUSE ME. Men get breast cancer, Kelly!" ~Holly

"I RAN OUT OF GAS, WILEY!" ~Kelly playing the "Google" Zamboni game

"Is pudding a carb?"  ~Kelly

"Everybody needs help.  If you say you don't need help, then you need help." ~Kelly

Kelly: They do it at 7 in the morning (community Zumba classes)
Holly: That should be illegal.

"Kelly, look at our child.  She is licking the string." ~Holly

Holly: Haven't seen the ice cream lady van in a while.
Kelly: It's winter.
Holly: Yeah.  But ice cream is good anytime.

"They're doing a live recording of a concert. Are they going to be recording us too? At least my hair looks good." ~Holly

"Balin is like dwarf Buddha...or dwarf Confucius." ~Holly (when discussing our favorite Hobbit dwarves)

"Spiders need Jesus too." ~Kelly

"I think your boots gave me shin splints." ~Kelly

"No, Google, I do not want to open 24 tabs." ~Holly

"DO NOT. THROW. THE CAT!" ~Holly

"I could be a dwarf.  I can sing.  I took archery.  I like food.  Let's do this!" ~Holly

(in reference to Sherlock and John being gay). "I don't mind gay people. Really I don't. It's all fine. But STOP!!!!!" ~Holly

"There is a method to my madness." ~Kelly

(after coming home from her first 12-hour clinical) "I'm going to eat like a fatty." ~Kelly

"I don't like Motor Pool minivans.  They give me panic attacks." ~Kelly

"Go make me a brownie. I'm doing homework." ~Kelly

"I am the reason we can't have nice things." ~Holly

after roommate suggested she should probably do her dance workout:
Kelly: I should probably do...a lot of things.
Holly: I should probably just stop being awesome.

"Stop...with your cake." ~Holly

"Don't have clinicals! I want to watch Phantom of the Opera!" ~Holly

"Don't talk to me about poop.  Or breaks." ~Kelly

"I'm afraid of taxes, the IRS...IRA...whatever they are, that they're going to kick down the door and be like 'YOU'RE FULL OF CRAP, HOLLY KORB, AND WE'RE GOING TO AUDIT YOU!!!!!'" ~Holly

Holly about a new British soap-opera esque show that we've started watching: "It's my new guilty pleasure, I swear.  Suddenly I'm a 40-year-old British housewife."

"A camera should follow us around for a week. That would stop reality TV." ~Holly

(watching Lion King): James Earl Jones just needs to narrate my life. At all times.  ~Holly

"ERRRRRRRRRRRRFFFFFFFFFFFFF!" ~Kelly

"I quit at life." ~Kelly, during fits of clinical, fatigue-induced delirium

"Oh, I'm sorry, I just infested you with my sick!" ~Holly, taking a bite of Kelly's food

Kelly: What are you making?
Holly: Peas, pig and pasta. (pig= pork chops, just for clarification)
Kelly: Oh. Do you need help with the peas, pig and pasta?
Holly: Nope.
Kelly: Did you get that off Pinterest?

"I can't use my food stamps because Martin Freeman didn't win an Emmy." ~Kelly

(Holly, while licking the bowl after making cupcakes) "You know how everyone is rooting for the 49ers and the Ravens...you know what I'm rooting for? My waistline."

"Who cares about aesthetics? Get in my belly!" ~Holly while making food

"I don't want to hear anything about you all being hungry. I spent $120 on food today!" ~Kelly
"Hey Kelly....I'm hungry." ~Holly

(roommate shows a picture of Kili) "Ehhh...I don't really think he's all that attractive." ~Holly
"But I wouldn't object if he showed up at the apartment." ~Kelly
(about a minute later) "I wouldn't object if any of the dwarves showed up at the apartment." ~Kelly

"I did not spend 5 years of college to wear a pink stole!" ~Kelly

"Kelly, I am NOT putting $8 jeans on layaway!" ~Holly

"Sometimes when life sucks, just remember that cupcakes were invented." ~Kelly

"They should just rename the next 'Star Trek' movie to 'Benedict Cumberbatch.'" ~Holly

"God loves to do big things through little people with big hearts."

Holly: Those were the closing lines of yet another inspiring sermon I heard this past Sunday.  Throughout the 45-minute message a recurring theme played over and over in my head.....more like a question: What makes a hero?  I'm sure many of you are familiar with the story of Moses.  What many people don't know is prior to his divine calling he was a convicted felon (I myself did not remember this part of the story).  In addition to this he was far from a public speaker, stricken with a speech impediment.  During the burning bush scenario he even BEGS God to use someone else to save his people;.  Yet Moses was singlehandedly responsible for one of the greatest people revolutions in history.  God saw something in Moses that he didn't see in himself.  And let's not forget Paul (started out persecuting Christians but later became a huge part of the New Testament), Rahab (a prostitute), Jesus' mother Mary (a teenager!!!), Peter (kind of a big doof...denied Jesus several times but later is the leader of the church in Ephesus)...I don't really think I need to continue any further.

After church I was talking to Kevin (the pastor) and I told him that I couldn't help but think of The Hobbit/LoTR.  Think about it: in The Hobbit, you have Bilbo, who is very comfortable with his food, his life, his things, and out of seemingly nowhere Gandalf shows up and whisks him away on this quest with 13 grotesque, loud, boisterous burping and food-gorging dwarves in order to reclaim their lost homeland.  It drags Bilbo WAY out of his comfort zone and even has the dwarves questioning why Gandalf chose this home-loving little person for such a dangerous and unpredictable quest.  In LoTR, there's Frodo: a meek young hobbit who voluntarily sends himself into danger's horrendous arms, at the mercy of a powerful little golden ring and an evil eye watching him at all times.  Never mind Samwise Gamgee, who decides to go with him.  Also, Aragorn: for the better part of the series he's running away from his destiny, taking the form of a ranger from the north instead of the long-awaited king of Gondor.  But what you see recurring in these stories is heart.  Their hearts outweigh any danger they get themselves into, that despite their sizes, they wholeheartedly strive to do right and make right in the crazy worlds they live in.

Then there's me: I fold clothes at Old Navy.  I'm 22 years old, single, living with my sister and another with 2 cats, a Bachelor's degree, and little else.  But I speak with the utmost of confidence when I say that I have a BIG heart! I love people so much sometimes it hurts.  God sees something in me, in all of us, that we don't, and He knows what he's doing.  Gandalf saw something in Bilbo, and perhaps Aragorn and Frodo too.  My point in all of this is keep your heart in check, keep it full of love and life, and you never know where life will take you.  The Gandalf of your life could come knocking on your door whenever you least expect it.

Kelly: I instantly think of the movie Facing the Giants. One of the football players, David, is a kicker on the team and is a small guy. Throughout the movie he often doubts his performances, isn't very confident in himself and constantly wonders why he was even allowed to be on the team. His father, who can't walk and is wheelchair bound, often tries to tell him to trust God and helps him put things into perspective. But...well I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it; just watch the movie and see what happens because he definitely redeems himself. I see a lot of David in myself. I too am a very small person. God has richly blessed me with a lot of things, but one of them was not height and that's ok. I've been in nursing school for a number of years now and am about to finish.

Things are...to be honest sort of rough right now for me. Juggling 240 clinical hours to complete, working 15 hours a week, homework and other things have put me on edge a bit. Yesterday was a particularly hard day clinical wise (read my blog about it) and I won't lie and say that we've struggled a time or two to make ends meet. But hey, who hasn't? Yet I thank God for what I do have and all He has done and all He will do, even when I'm between a rock and a hard place. Then I think of the places I've been. This time 3 years ago I was in New Orleans on a mission trip. I met all sorts of wonderful people going through different walks of life who had hearts that were just on fire for God! And these were just ordinary people who felt that God was going to do mighty things with them. And that's where I stand. I don't see it yet, I don't know it yet, but God is going to do great things to me and to those who least expect it. For all I know I could wake up tomorrow and get hit by a bus, because to be honest we never know where this life will take us as Holly said. But if we keep our eyes fixed on God, our mind open to receive what comes our way and if we trust God to give him the "bad" things, then who knows? Faith as small as a mustard seed armed with a little bit of compassion, trust and love for others could go a long way.

Funny Animals Talking

Holly and Kelly: Yet again, we aim to tickle your funny bone with this video that first appeared on Facebook this morning.  We've watched it numerous times and it's still making us laugh.  Enjoy.

"Dwarf" Invasion

Holly and Kelly: We are still deep in the trenches of the Hobbit fandemonium, so imagine our utter giddiness when we stumbled across this gem of musical happiness.  If it doesn't make you laugh (which it does for us, on many occasions) then we hope it will, at the very least, bring a smile to your face.

The band is from Wellington, NZ, by the way.