Breaking Bad Habits

Hi, remember me?

It's been awhile and a lot has happened (moving, both Mark and I starting new jobs, graduating, vacation, etc.)...and we will blog about that later. For now, I will tell you about our bad habit that we are working on breaking, and I though posting it would be a good way to have accountability (from allllllll of our blog readers ;)).

So when I lived in Detroit by myself for school during the week, I would turn on the tv the moment I walked in the door and leave it on until after I fell asleep. We only got like three channels, so there was never anything good on, but I just liked having the noise (to cover the nosies of other people that would scare me). Since I have moved back home with my husband, we have gotten into this habit also. We always have the tv on, and to fall asleep each night we turn it on. We would read during the day, and chat and things, but then at night we would just watch tv. The other day we were moving my lovely sister into her apartment and she asked if she could buy our big, huge tv that his grandpa handed down to us when he moved. Now, mind you Mark has not been in the same city as this tv in two years, but did not want to sell it. He wanted us to have a nice tv. Which obviously is fine (and for the rest of this blog I'll be talking about personal conviction for us). But, we have specific goals that we are striving for (mostly to be Christ like to glorify God), and laying in bed every night rotting our brains with our tv was not doing that. When I think about telling our kids about our lives and being accountable to God for our time, I just don't think they will be impressed with a recap of the Bachlorette and Say Yes to the Dress.  We have financial goals which were benefited by selling the tv, and we were determined to break the tv habit - so it made perfect sense. And --  did I mention the tv is like 9847 pounds? and its really hard to move, so getting it off our hands was a plus.

On vacation we did not have a tv, so that kick started our no tv. Last night we read, and chatted and then turned off the lights and it was hard. I am not going to lie. I layed there and listened to Mark softly sleep and wanted to turn the tv on soooo bad. So now, we are officially tv-at-night free. Please ask us how this is going, and fill us in on anything exciting that happens on television.

Oh yeah, I am not giving up the Bachlorette...yet.

Love,
Brittany

The Biggest thing I learned, via Brittany's First Job Interview :)

Lets start (briefly) with the things I didn't learn (because I already knew them):

1. That my wife is a baller
2. That my wife is hot
3. How to worry about my wife being successful
4. That I love just bopping around with my wife
5. That I'm excited for the rest of our lives

The BIGGEST thing that I learned:

Brittany and I psych ourselves up WAY differently for interviews, etc.

Here is rare video footage of what it looks like when brittany psychs herself up...

And here is an example of me psyching myself up....

I hope you understand us a little better now...

How to be an awesome husband (and happy v-day!)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

How to be an awesome husband

(Obviously this is based on Mark)

• Make Jesus a priority. 
• Mark prays for us every night, makes sure going to church is a priority (even if he works overnight the night before), tithes, and asks me about, and encourages my walk with Jesus.
• Work so hard to provide financially for your family.
• Mark has spent the past two years working really hard, at some pretty crappy jobs (including pizza delivery, dishes for a catering company, yard work, and dog sitting) and spent almost his whole paycheck on PA school, and my medical bills. I honestly don’t know if I would be selfless enough to do that for him, he is such a stud.
• Share interests.
• You won’t obviously love everything your wife does (and if you say you do, you are lying). But try to share some of the things she does. Mark does this by watching the Bachelor with me on Monday nights and laughs and jokes with me through it, which means so much. Also, we have these two lovely little girls I babysit (Anna and Amy) every weekend. I LOVE this. Mark does not. I know this. But I know he also makes a huge effort to enjoy them and play with them and shows me so much love through that. Find new things that you enjoy together, for us, its mountain biking, board games, cooking (and eating), scramble with friends, libraries, and double dates.



Mark with sweet little Anna at the park

•  Be patient.
• Girls are moody. I am the moodiest. Your wife probably is too. Take deep breaths and be patient.
• Deal with conflict – quickly.
•  Don’t let it build up, if something is bothering you, speak up out of love so that Satan does not get a foot hold. For example, I have this horrible habit of playing Tetris on my phone whenever we are talking about things that I don’t really want to hear about or am annoyed. Which is super lame and bratty – I know. The other day Mark so gently explained how much he hates that and would just appreciate if I sat there and listened. He brought to my attention the bad habit and now I can fix it.
• Forgive easily.
• What a better way to be the head of a house, and lead as Christ does, than to forgive?
• Serve your wife.
• Mark cleans our mess of a room, does dishes, cooks dinner, does laundry, and rubs my back. These are the things that serve me the most. I am sure these things wouldn’t be the best for every couple. Some girls love flowers and gifts, but Mark has learned what serves me most and does that.
• Love her family.
• I know Mark does not always get my crazy sisters and mom and I, but he loves them. Even though he knows we will probably be too loud and obnoxious, someone will cry at some point, and there will be fights. He has sat through so much family drama, but still encourages our relationships with them. He reminds me how much he loves them and cares for them, and makes sure we spend time with them.

Mark fits in so nicely with the girls :)

• Be content.
• We are in a season of not much extra (or any at all) income right now. And Mark is content. He doesn’t complain, and leads in being content. He makes a big deal out of little things we get to do, and finds joy in what we do have.
• Do as many crappy errands as you can.
• Like fill her gas tank up, change her oil, carry in groceries. Mark always gets me two liters when he comes to Detroit and carries them all the way up to the apartment and I LOVE not having to do that.
• Make her laugh.
• This is so important. I assure you this will make your life seem much easier. Find things that you can laugh together about. Mark is hilarious, so most of the time we don’t have a problem with this :)

This is what Mark did to my room one Valentines day in college. It made me laugh. And actually my roommates and I used that toilet paper for months in our bathroom. Ha.

I assure you we are far from a perfect couple, and Mark would be the first to say he is growing and learning a lot as a husband. But he’s pretty amazing, and I love him so much, and it’s Valentine’s day. So go celebrate love!

Love,
Brittany

Happy Groundhog day (Belated)

As you may know, (or if you don’t watch the local news, you probably didn’t know) on February 2, our country gathered together to discern the will of God via a rodent. Essentially. Kinda. Ok, maybe that’s a little bit of a stretch.
When I think our Groundhog Day holiday (which I celebrate privately), the first thing that always seems to come to my mind is a movie. Perhaps one of our country’s finest contributions to the realm of cinema. The movie I’m talking about is of course, Groundhog Day. One of Bill Murray’s best movies, right alongside with Caddyshack and What About Bob?

The whole premise of the movie is this (taken from IMDB.com):

A weather man is reluctantly sent to cover a story about a weather forecasting "rat" (as he calls it). This is his fourth year on the story, and he makes no effort to hide his frustration. On awaking the 'following' day he discovers that it's Groundhog Day again, and again, and again. First he uses this to his advantage, then comes the realization that he is doomed to spend the rest of eternity in the same place, seeing the same people do the same thing EVERY day.

I have to admit that a lot of times I feel like Phil Conners. I feel like I’m stuck on “February 2nd,” a day that I’ve already lived a thousand times, nothing changing, nothing new, just the same crap, on the same day, forever. Wake-up, grab that cup of coffee and my lunch box, drive to work, fold boxes for 12 hours, drive home, watch tv for two hours, pass out. Again, and again, and again. Doomed.

You see, a lot of times I struggle with bitterness and some depression. So often I’m good at looking at my friends and acquaintances and seeing all of their successes. I’m really good at that, actually. I see them living their dreams with everything falling right into place for them, so nice and neat. I try and listen to them share about their struggles, and empathize with them.

Question #1: What makes me think that I’m not exactly where God wants me?

Answer: Because I think I know better than God? That’s humbling to just be typing this right now; this is the type of transparency that I don’t like. God is ridiculously awesome! I, however, am not. God orchestrates the Universe! I struggle with the game monopoly. God is the great I AM! I am fallen, finite, weak, and self-centered.

Question #2: How do you break free from Groundhog day?

Answer: This could be as simple or as complex as you want, and I wish I was wise enough to have broken free from my “Groundhog day” on my own accord. However, this has been a process that I have been in for the past month or so. One of the verses that I have been meditating on at work has been Lamantations 3:22-23, which says this:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

I believe that this verse shares with us the essential truth that God is always with us and it is impossible for us to escape his hand, his sight, and his plan, where ever we go (Joshua 1:9). All good things come from him (James 1:17). Even on Groundhog day. It’s our choice to see the world around us as a servant to us, or a servant to its creator. It’s our choice to see “what is owed” to us, or see the blessings that are already surrounding us. This is the message I preach to myself. This is the sin I confess. This is the joy I express!

Mark

Is there nothing to sing about to-day? Then borrow a song from to-morrow; sing of what is yet to be. Is this world dreary? Then think of the next. —C.H. Spurgeon

This is hilarious.
 Anyone who knows Brittany, knows she always gets stuff stuck in her teeth (she blames it on her fake tooth) and this reminds me of her.

My newest rotation

I just started ob/gyn at Hutzel Women's Hospital in Detroit this week and all I can really say is...wow.

Here is the hospital I am at. Beautiful huh? ;)

Here is me in my little scrub suit and a lame mirror pic, but I know blogs are a little boring without pictures.

First of all, anyone who knows me knows my frustration with having to be back in Detroit and not getting a rotation in Kalamazoo, so I was frankly not too pumped about anything about this rotation. I have only had three days there, but have learned so much. I am on the labor and delivery floor, and get to help follow patients and deliver babies from 6:30am-7pm each week day. I have not only learned so much about obstetrics and gynecology but about me, and God, and what I want to do with my life. I cannot believe the brokenness and sadness that some most parts of my day bring me. Most of these girls are teenagers, and have no family or no dad for their baby in sight. On one hand I am blown away by the whole birthing process, and how you are literally just staring at a mess really (not to be too graphic), and then the next moment there is a little babies head just right there. And then a whole baby. Even the c-sections (which seem so painful and awful and I want to avoid) are so crazy. How you make a cut and just pull out a baby (which I know it is not that simple, but to me, standing there holding a retractor that's what it is). Every time I want to cry and hug and cheer. But sadly I have not seen that yet. If there is any family in the room (most of the time the girl is alone), there is not really any excitement. I know they must be exhausted and yadda ya, but it seems like there should still be some sight of happiness. It makes me so sad for these babies, and these poor alone, overwhelmed mothers. I have seen a 12 year old pregnant, delivered a 20 year olds baby who is on her 5th pregnancy, a girl that told me her complications were probably due to her abortions, so many people with no prenatal care, and a lady who's twins had to be taken away from her because she was high at the time of delivery.

 These three days could have been a fluke and maybe I will see much more happiness and different stories, but here is what I have learned about myself so far:

- I want to have kids, and lots of them.
- I have never been so pro-adoption in my whole life. I have always been such a huge fan of adoption and believe it's such an awesome and unique opportunity and reflection of how God adopts us, but I want to now more than ever.
- I think I want to work in low socio-economic situation or inner city. I have wanted to go into primary care and my favorite part of my work in health care has always been explaining things to patients to actually help them understand what is going on, and I feel like there is not a lot of that going on for people on medicaid. (Also, I understand that I have no idea how that would work, or what a job like this would look like, and I bet a lot of health care people say this, and I am sure people read this and think that I am just naive and haven't been hardened to the system. And really I hope I always have hope for people and don't get hardened).
- This is God's world, and he has not lost control of this. Even though it seems so bad, and sad, He is good, and has won the battle. I don't understand (and I am sure I wont on this side of heaven) why some people who are so prepared for motherhood cant get pregnant and why some of these girls are on drugs and get pregnant have have abortions. This has stretched me and forced me simply to trust God and just have faith when I cannot see.
- I cannot live apart from Mark. Holy cow, I have no idea how we did this all last year....like driving home on the weekends and only seeing each other for a few hours. Wow, I miss him during the week!

So, I will try to stay updated on life on the weekends when I have internet.
And 82 days till I am done with school! FOREVER!! :)

Why I'm not mad waiting for Lex.

Right now I am sitting in the bottom of a dinghy parking garage at Michigan State, in the middle of a snowstorm, waiting for my sister. And actually I am pretty happy to be sitting here.


Let me explain.

My lovely sister Lex is a freshman at Michigan State University and she has been planning on coming home for a long weekend (MLK day Monday) this weekend. I volunteered weeks ago to come up to East Lansing and get her on Thursday night. I came up after work (through the snow storm – in our awesome Explorer), and because of that snowstorm I texted Lex and told her I didn’t want to dilly daddle around East Lansing, like we are known to do. I didn’t want her to go to Real Life – Campus Crusade’s weekly meeting- that I just wanted to get headed home. She texted me back that she is so sorry but could I please wait for her to go to Real Life. Ugh. But then she explained, not just because she is awesome and loves Jesus and wants to see her friends and worship. Nope, because she invited a girl from her teaching class last semester, and this was going to be her first time coming, and that she didn’t want to ditch her. That she wanted to help her new little friend get plugged into this awesome ministry, and hopefully come to know Jesus, and that makes me excited. I am not sitting here waiting for my little sister to get done with thirsty Thursday (where I am sure a good chunk of the campus is), but to get done with worshiping Jesus and sharing life with other college kids smack dab in the middle of this (very) secular University.

To see her thrive, and grow in huge ways in her relationship with Jesus is such a testimony. I see so many high school Christian’s not want to go to a big, pagan university like MSU, because they fear they would not grow as Christian. That makes me sad. Mark and both grew more in our relationships with Jesus at MSU through campus crusade than I think any other four year period of time in our lives. We were both discipled by strong, faithful leaders, and taught so much. We learned how to worship, serve, share the gospel with others, have an intimate relationship with God, date for the glory of God, our identity, theology, how to live our lives in non Christian environments and most importantly more about Jesus. We both met some of our best friends, and MSU is where Mark actually made the decision to follow Jesus. I look at my sister Lex, and right now she has one roommate who is Indian, and never heard the gospel, as well as a roommate (and another girl on her floor) from Vietnam. Those two girls both came right from Vietnam and will probably go back there after they graduate. They have never seen a bible, heard the gospel, or been to church. Lex gets to share Jesus and the gospel with them, as well as show them love and grace each day. She got to buy a bible for both of the girls who had never seen one, teach them how to look up verses, and bring them to bible study. God willing, they will come to know Christ and be able to go back to their countries and tell people about Jesus.

So, no, you do not have to have a jaw dropping testimony on your application to get to into Michigan State University, and yes, there are a lot of parties here. But, God is moving. God is using Christ followers in this place to rise up future leaders, and change people’s hearts for Jesus. And now I have to go pick up my little sister Lex and hear of the awesome things God is doing in her life.

-Brittany

Christmas Traditions

Here is a little peek into all the fun that was had at the Sheets (/Immink) house this year for Christmas break!

Actually this is from my birthday, Mark decorated our room while I was sleeping (I'm a heavy sleeper) and this is what I woke up to!

This is the cake Mark made me...its a bowl. The whole bowl is cake - pretty amazing.
 And pretty delicious!
 This is further proof of my love for Lucky Charms.



Sweet little elf Amy



Working on some crafts

Anna and Amy before Christmas Eve service

My mom and I playing some Christmas carols - this has been one of my favorite things since I was old enough for my mom to teach me a couple of notes to play along to "Do you hear what I hear?" and we play each year.

Matching Santa socks.

Lex and I making truffles. Which we then preceded to eat half of.

Jenna and the girls

Decorating cookies! (Its very early morning here which is why Mark looks so happy and in to the festivities)

Finished product!
(Please excuse my fleece cheetah pants - they are so comfy which overrides the ugliness of them)

The whole caroling team!
(Mark sits in the chair, with a beer, and kinda mumbles along - which is exactly what my dad used to do and I love it)

This is a horrid picture of me,
but its hilarious because Jenna is in the back ground trying to ruin it - which she loves to do)

This was our present to my mom. We have have like 4 dollars between the four of us and so we decided a craft would have to do this year. The melted crayons are suppose to look like rain and its an outline of a picture that we have of us four outside in the rain. We put it with the quote something like its not surviving the storms but learning to dance in the rain. Which we thought described our life pretty well. And turned out she loved it!

Christmas break is on of my favorite times. I love how everyone comes home and just the excitement of Christmas and the music and the food (obviously I love the food). This year I worked in the ER at Pennock  hospital and was able to arrange my schedule to be home for Christmas. I was able to work 11-11, and both my sisters were home and so they were still up when I got home which was just perfect. I could tell them all the cool/gross things I got to do that day, and we could eat snacks and chat. Mark started working, and worked a couple 80 hours week, so I didn't get to see him much, but we are so thankful for the income! Now he is down to 50-60 hours a week which feels MUCH more manageable and we feel like we are getting back on our feet a little.

This past weekend we got to go to our apartment in Detroit, which feels like a hotel, and spend the weekend. We spent Friday-Sunday there, and it was literally the most fun ever. We celebrated our 2 year anniversary (today!) with a lunch at Buco di Beppo (with a gift card we got for Christmas) and had such a great time. We rented some movies from the library and just ate (delicious) leftovers all weekend - and had a gas card to get us there, so we even felt a little more like we could relax and enjoy it because it was pretty much free. Praise God.

Last week we also had some friends over. Mark got a free ham from work (thank you Graphic Packaging), and my mom said she would buy some wine and beer and leave us alone and we could have people over. It is a little weird having a social life when you live at your parents house - maybe I will write about this more later, but we decided everyone knows we live with my mom so its not like we are inviting people over and being like "surprise you have to come to the 'rents". Anyway, we had some college friends over, and my sisters were there and we all ate dinner together, chatted, and played games. It was actually REALLY fun. I get in the funk a lot of times where it feels like I don't have any friends (because most don't live in the area, and I am terrible at keeping in touch), and I just feel lame for living at home. Our little get together was such a fun, encouraging, and refreshing night for both Mark and I! And my sisters have both commented on how much fun they had! Praise God for awesome friends that you can just pick up with where you left off with.

Speaking of that, I also got to hang out with Alyson and Michelle (my two bffs from high school). It was so nice to just catch up with them. Again, I am terrible with keeping in touch, but we can always just sit down and chat and it feels perfectly fine.

I am starting my elective this week at Promed family practice, and I literally cannot wait. I am working with Laura, a PA, and I absolutely love her and we have a lot of fun. I worked with her some of the time this summer and we have kept in touch, so it will be really fun. She lets me do a lot and she does a lot of mole removals and biopsies and other fun things like that. Yay. And I will be working 8-6, and Mark is working 7-7, and so we will ALMOST be on the same schedule for the first time in a year in a half. Praise Jesus.

Love,
Brittany