in...
KALAMAZOO!!!!!
Praise Jesus!
I was getting ready to start internal medicine at the VA (which I was less than thrilled with and had no idea when the next time I would see Mark is...), and I got the go ahead to head to Kalamazoo to start the next day. This was literally a last second come back. To say I was thrilled would be the understatement of the century. I have no idea why I had so much invested into getting this rotation in Kzoo (I think the whole living across the state from Mark was wearing on me), but I did, and when I found out I wanted to do a backflip. But I did not. Or I would be in the hospital right now.
I decided to surprise Mark at church on Wednesday with the great news. I thought (as of that morning), that'd I would be at the VA, so continued to let him assume that and just showed up at church where he was working. It was awesome. Even though he has already discussed in this blog how he is not a very good surprise receiver (like when I showed up in Texas), it was so fun. I cant wait to be with him everyday! Ah!
So.
I started today....and loved it!
I am doing the rotation at Promed with Borgess.
Today I got to see several patients, take out stitches, and cut off a bunch of skin tags from a guys neck and armpits. Which actually thrilled me. I am excited for this rotation!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Psych is sad....
Oh my gosh, psych is turning out to be really sad.
At first, there were sad patients, but many were also drug abusers, and that made it easier to swallow that they were homeless and had such rough lives for me. But lately, its been different. We have had so many young people in just terrible situations.
I the past few days I have seen:
- A 22 year old college student driving her car, hit head on (not her fault) and has been in the hospital for over 2 months and will never be the same (her parents have gotten divorced over the stress of the accident).
- A lady with a BMI of 11(no joke) who weighed 60 pounds. It was being investigated if her husband was abusing her.
- A man who got tied up with 3 of his friends (after robbing someone), and his three friends got shot and killed and he got let go. And has been in so many street fights and in and out of jail.
- A girl who was high on crack and had her baby on the floor of her house while she was high (so did not get medical help for a while), her baby got taken by the state.
- A girl who got pregnant when she was 12 and her mom beat her when she found out. The girl is now 20 and wants to have a relationship with her 8 year old son.
- A girl who thought her son was being molested, and we had to call child protective services.
- A 19 year old girl who just gave birth to twins, and has a 9 month old and 2 year old, and we were called for her cutting her self because she was stressed out (really??)
- A pregnant girl who asked how she felt about her baby said "I don't want it"
- And today, was literally the hardest patient I have seen, it was a fairly young girl, who had just gave birth to her 4th child. She had her at 4pm yesterday, and I saw her this morning and she had not seen the baby yet. When I asked why, she said she didn't want to because she did not know what to do with it (she kept saying it even though it was a girl), and it was just heartbreaking. She had not named her. She did not want her in the room. She was not aloof, you could just see her heart being broken. She cried throughout the whole hour interview, and just said how she doesn't think she will be the best mom for the baby. She seemed to genuinely want to better her life, but has three other kids (two who don't live with her) and is just spinning her wheels. She said the babies father has no interest in her or the baby. She is living with a friend, and braiding hair for income. She literally broke my heart. She was really open with me and I felt like I was talking to a friend, or a sister. We talked about adoption a lot, which praise Jesus, thanks to my avid blog reading, and research into adoption I was able to talk to her intelligently. I literally was holding back tears.
This is just so not God's design.
Babies are suppose to be celebrated, and loved, and prayed over.
Families are suppose to rejoice.
Dad's are suppose to be there to love and support their wives, and hold their babies.
I just kept thinking of that poor baby girl down in the nursery, perfectly healthy but no had been there to see her. No one celebrated her birthday yet. It literally just like broke my heart. I wanted to lay down next to my patient and just cry. Then I wanted to take her and her baby home with me. It literally just broke my heart. Mark and I have wanted to adopt, and this just confirms it so much. Detroit is so broken. I want to adopt more than ever.I think of my friends who are pregnant or recently had babies, and how much support they get, and how their families are so excited, and how they celebrate each milestone, and how if there is bad news - there are people around them to speak truth and support them. This girl had not told anyone she was pregnant and no one had been there to see her. She did not have a relationship with her parents or any siblings. No friends had called or came. So much brokenness.
Well, that is my sad story. But I really do love being in the hospital. I enjoy learning, and seeing patients and it's just a really fun thing. And, we do see lots of funny things still. Things that are a little less intense, and just pretty funny.
And, in other exciting news. I have a roommate! My little sister Jenna got an internship in Detroit this summer at Enterprise. It's great. We have never lived together outside of our parents house, and its fun! Minus the fact that in the first few minutes of her being here she opened the fridge and a whole carton of eggs fell on the floor and smashed. Oh yeah - I have a carpeted kitchen. Shoot me. Now we are trying to get the rotten egg smell out. Any ideas?
Other news: Mark has a phone interview Monday (also his birthday!!) at a church. Pray. We have literally gotten 530895 "no-you-are-great-but-not-enough-experience" letters/e-mails/calls. We are ready for a yes :)
Brittany
At first, there were sad patients, but many were also drug abusers, and that made it easier to swallow that they were homeless and had such rough lives for me. But lately, its been different. We have had so many young people in just terrible situations.
I the past few days I have seen:
- A 22 year old college student driving her car, hit head on (not her fault) and has been in the hospital for over 2 months and will never be the same (her parents have gotten divorced over the stress of the accident).
- A lady with a BMI of 11(no joke) who weighed 60 pounds. It was being investigated if her husband was abusing her.
- A man who got tied up with 3 of his friends (after robbing someone), and his three friends got shot and killed and he got let go. And has been in so many street fights and in and out of jail.
- A girl who was high on crack and had her baby on the floor of her house while she was high (so did not get medical help for a while), her baby got taken by the state.
- A girl who got pregnant when she was 12 and her mom beat her when she found out. The girl is now 20 and wants to have a relationship with her 8 year old son.
- A girl who thought her son was being molested, and we had to call child protective services.
- A 19 year old girl who just gave birth to twins, and has a 9 month old and 2 year old, and we were called for her cutting her self because she was stressed out (really??)
- A pregnant girl who asked how she felt about her baby said "I don't want it"
- And today, was literally the hardest patient I have seen, it was a fairly young girl, who had just gave birth to her 4th child. She had her at 4pm yesterday, and I saw her this morning and she had not seen the baby yet. When I asked why, she said she didn't want to because she did not know what to do with it (she kept saying it even though it was a girl), and it was just heartbreaking. She had not named her. She did not want her in the room. She was not aloof, you could just see her heart being broken. She cried throughout the whole hour interview, and just said how she doesn't think she will be the best mom for the baby. She seemed to genuinely want to better her life, but has three other kids (two who don't live with her) and is just spinning her wheels. She said the babies father has no interest in her or the baby. She is living with a friend, and braiding hair for income. She literally broke my heart. She was really open with me and I felt like I was talking to a friend, or a sister. We talked about adoption a lot, which praise Jesus, thanks to my avid blog reading, and research into adoption I was able to talk to her intelligently. I literally was holding back tears.
This is just so not God's design.
Babies are suppose to be celebrated, and loved, and prayed over.
Families are suppose to rejoice.
Dad's are suppose to be there to love and support their wives, and hold their babies.
I just kept thinking of that poor baby girl down in the nursery, perfectly healthy but no had been there to see her. No one celebrated her birthday yet. It literally just like broke my heart. I wanted to lay down next to my patient and just cry. Then I wanted to take her and her baby home with me. It literally just broke my heart. Mark and I have wanted to adopt, and this just confirms it so much. Detroit is so broken. I want to adopt more than ever.I think of my friends who are pregnant or recently had babies, and how much support they get, and how their families are so excited, and how they celebrate each milestone, and how if there is bad news - there are people around them to speak truth and support them. This girl had not told anyone she was pregnant and no one had been there to see her. She did not have a relationship with her parents or any siblings. No friends had called or came. So much brokenness.
Well, that is my sad story. But I really do love being in the hospital. I enjoy learning, and seeing patients and it's just a really fun thing. And, we do see lots of funny things still. Things that are a little less intense, and just pretty funny.
And, in other exciting news. I have a roommate! My little sister Jenna got an internship in Detroit this summer at Enterprise. It's great. We have never lived together outside of our parents house, and its fun! Minus the fact that in the first few minutes of her being here she opened the fridge and a whole carton of eggs fell on the floor and smashed. Oh yeah - I have a carpeted kitchen. Shoot me. Now we are trying to get the rotten egg smell out. Any ideas?
Other news: Mark has a phone interview Monday (also his birthday!!) at a church. Pray. We have literally gotten 530895 "no-you-are-great-but-not-enough-experience" letters/e-mails/calls. We are ready for a yes :)
Brittany
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
First Rotation!
I started my first rotation yesterday - and it's psychiatry at Detroit Receiving Hospital.
And....
I LOVE it!
It has been awesome. I honestly love being in the hospital and seeing patients, and my preceptor is so great.
Here is what our days have been like so far:
- Park about a mile from the hospital and take a shuttle with other medical students to the hospital.
- Try and remember where we are suppose to go.
- Wait for our doctor to come in and quickly tell us we are going to see patients (and we literally have to pop up and start our sprint).
- Follow our doctor (a psychiatrist) around (at practically a run) and he asks us questions all day, and we dont know very many answers - but he is patient and teaches us - and then re asks us later in the day (and we usually remember the answers).
- See interesting patients including: a patient who is seeing cats running across the floor in his hospital room, a patient who thought he was brought by a boat with his friend (which I assure you he was not), a patient from prison who had banged his head and cut it open and keep picking open the stitches with his nails, a patient who had attempted suicide with drugs with her boyfriend (who died), a patient who had voices telling her to kill herself with rat poison, and a patient who wanted a new room because there was a "big, black, insect hanging from the ceiling".
- Continue to chase around the doctor all day - by now my legs and feet are killing.
- Try to answer his questions, while furiously writing things to look up later in my little notebook.
- Eat my packed lunch in this little back office and totally enjoy sitting down. Use the restroom - we dont have any time to all day. I am pretty sure he would not slow down to give us enough time to use the bathroom.
- See other patients including combative patients who need medications adjusted (usually increase in Haldol), patients who are way too sedated with their medications (usually decrease in Ativan), patients dealing with tough diagnosises (we saw and amputation, and a girl who just had a stillbirth).
- Watch our doc do wonderful interviews with patients. When they say crazy things, he just listens and clarifies. He asks them if they know where they are, who they are, and what the date is first with everyone. Then he asks "how the voices are", and if "they see any family members in the room with them at the time", "if anyone is telling them to hurt themselves", and always asks about suicidal and homicidal ideation.
- Get a lesson in something, yesterday and today it has been depression. The doc actually takes time and prints us a PowerPoint and gives us a lesson. Which this is pretty awesome, because he does not get any reimbursement from Wayne for having students, and I am sure he must get paid a lot if he would see patients, so it is pretty great he is taking time to do this!
- Done! Ahhhh, so great. My legs and feet can hardly move.
- Take the shuttle back to my car. Battle crazy Detroit drivers and get back to my apartment.
Eat. Study (and read blogs). Sleep (yesterday I went to bed at 7:30, and had to force myself to stay awake until then -pathetic I know!)
We get to start seeing our own patients on Thursday (and charting) in the morning and then do rounds and present the cases to the doctor in the afternoon. I am pretty excited - and a little nervous!
And....
I LOVE it!
It has been awesome. I honestly love being in the hospital and seeing patients, and my preceptor is so great.
Here is what our days have been like so far:
- Park about a mile from the hospital and take a shuttle with other medical students to the hospital.
- Try and remember where we are suppose to go.
- Wait for our doctor to come in and quickly tell us we are going to see patients (and we literally have to pop up and start our sprint).
- Follow our doctor (a psychiatrist) around (at practically a run) and he asks us questions all day, and we dont know very many answers - but he is patient and teaches us - and then re asks us later in the day (and we usually remember the answers).
- See interesting patients including: a patient who is seeing cats running across the floor in his hospital room, a patient who thought he was brought by a boat with his friend (which I assure you he was not), a patient from prison who had banged his head and cut it open and keep picking open the stitches with his nails, a patient who had attempted suicide with drugs with her boyfriend (who died), a patient who had voices telling her to kill herself with rat poison, and a patient who wanted a new room because there was a "big, black, insect hanging from the ceiling".
- Continue to chase around the doctor all day - by now my legs and feet are killing.
- Try to answer his questions, while furiously writing things to look up later in my little notebook.
- Eat my packed lunch in this little back office and totally enjoy sitting down. Use the restroom - we dont have any time to all day. I am pretty sure he would not slow down to give us enough time to use the bathroom.
- See other patients including combative patients who need medications adjusted (usually increase in Haldol), patients who are way too sedated with their medications (usually decrease in Ativan), patients dealing with tough diagnosises (we saw and amputation, and a girl who just had a stillbirth).
- Watch our doc do wonderful interviews with patients. When they say crazy things, he just listens and clarifies. He asks them if they know where they are, who they are, and what the date is first with everyone. Then he asks "how the voices are", and if "they see any family members in the room with them at the time", "if anyone is telling them to hurt themselves", and always asks about suicidal and homicidal ideation.
- Get a lesson in something, yesterday and today it has been depression. The doc actually takes time and prints us a PowerPoint and gives us a lesson. Which this is pretty awesome, because he does not get any reimbursement from Wayne for having students, and I am sure he must get paid a lot if he would see patients, so it is pretty great he is taking time to do this!
- Done! Ahhhh, so great. My legs and feet can hardly move.
- Take the shuttle back to my car. Battle crazy Detroit drivers and get back to my apartment.
Eat. Study (and read blogs). Sleep (yesterday I went to bed at 7:30, and had to force myself to stay awake until then -pathetic I know!)
We get to start seeing our own patients on Thursday (and charting) in the morning and then do rounds and present the cases to the doctor in the afternoon. I am pretty excited - and a little nervous!
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| This is the beautiful Detroit Receiving Hospital - very interesting there! |
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| Here is Harper Hospital - which we haul to like every other patient, what a walk! |
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
My lovely little break!
I have had a wonderful little break here between year I and year II of PA school. It has literally been such a refreshing and relaxing time! I cannot believe I made it through year I of PA school, man, it was rough. I start my rotations next week, and have orientation the rest of this week. My first rotation is in psych, at Detroit Receiving, and it is a month long. The only info I know about it is to show up at 9am on Monday, May 2nd. No idea what my schedule will look like - should really just be an interesting year!
Anyway, here is a summery of the highlights of my break....
Other highlights that I don't have pictures of are:
- Sleeping in with Mark (today he woke me up at noon - after 12 hours of sleep - pure bliss)
- Reading a non school book
- Selling books on Amazon to make some money
- Babysitting Anna and Amy :)
- Easter and spending the day with Mark's family in Holland and Hudsonville
- Getting a scholarship! Praise God!!
- Getting a new computer (a verrrry early birthday present from my mom), but its an acer laptop, and was a great deal, and I LOVE it! (and my old one officially would not hold a charge - so had to be put down)
- Getting to hear Mark give the lessons for the youth group twice, which is so encouraging for me. He is so gifted, and for me to hear encouragement in that is just huge in our lives right now.
- Hanging out with Mike and Kelly (friends from college) at Applebees for a few hours, they are just great, and it was a fun time.
- A MSU visit with Lex. I got to be her parent for this info thing, it was such a fun day, and we got lunch in the caf, which was probably the highlight. Its so fun hearing about MSU, and seeing her get excited to go there, and just to be on campus again. We went to the presentations, lunch, a tour, the bookstore, Bubble Island, and then to Trinity church to meet Ashley for dinner at Cancun (of course). It was such a fun day, and I just so enjoy spending time with Lex!
- Celebrating being done with my first year! My mom took my sisters and I, (and Anna and Amy) to Carabas for dinner (Mark had to work). Such great food, and we all just had such a nice time!
Well, that was a little summary of my break!
Mark is still working at gracespring church until the end of June (when they are letting him go), delivering for Pizza Hut, and random jobs for money. We are not sure what is going to happen after June, we are praying for a full time opportunity to open up before then. Ideally in youth ministry, but would be open to anything. This has been such a difficult season of life, but we have much to be thankful for, we know that God is God, and God is good.
Love,
Brittany
Anyway, here is a summery of the highlights of my break....
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| Lex and her awesome Harry Potter cake that Mark made her! (and I helped a little bit) She loves HP, and its suppose to be Hogwarts. It was verrrry tasty!! |
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| For Lexy's 18th birthday my mom surprised us with a dinner at the chef's table at Zazios. I had never heard of the restaurant, and was a little skeptical, but it was absolutely fabulous and we felt very special! |
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| For my moms (39th -ish) birthday we made cards of 60 reasons why she is the best mom every, and put them in balloons and surprised her in her room. She loved it! Yay! |
- Sleeping in with Mark (today he woke me up at noon - after 12 hours of sleep - pure bliss)
- Reading a non school book
- Selling books on Amazon to make some money
- Babysitting Anna and Amy :)
- Easter and spending the day with Mark's family in Holland and Hudsonville
- Getting a scholarship! Praise God!!
- Getting a new computer (a verrrry early birthday present from my mom), but its an acer laptop, and was a great deal, and I LOVE it! (and my old one officially would not hold a charge - so had to be put down)
- Getting to hear Mark give the lessons for the youth group twice, which is so encouraging for me. He is so gifted, and for me to hear encouragement in that is just huge in our lives right now.
- Hanging out with Mike and Kelly (friends from college) at Applebees for a few hours, they are just great, and it was a fun time.
- A MSU visit with Lex. I got to be her parent for this info thing, it was such a fun day, and we got lunch in the caf, which was probably the highlight. Its so fun hearing about MSU, and seeing her get excited to go there, and just to be on campus again. We went to the presentations, lunch, a tour, the bookstore, Bubble Island, and then to Trinity church to meet Ashley for dinner at Cancun (of course). It was such a fun day, and I just so enjoy spending time with Lex!
- Celebrating being done with my first year! My mom took my sisters and I, (and Anna and Amy) to Carabas for dinner (Mark had to work). Such great food, and we all just had such a nice time!
Well, that was a little summary of my break!
Mark is still working at gracespring church until the end of June (when they are letting him go), delivering for Pizza Hut, and random jobs for money. We are not sure what is going to happen after June, we are praying for a full time opportunity to open up before then. Ideally in youth ministry, but would be open to anything. This has been such a difficult season of life, but we have much to be thankful for, we know that God is God, and God is good.
Love,
Brittany
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Guess what starts tomorrow at 3pm?!?
SPRING BREAK!!!!
I literally cannot wait. I am almost giddy I am so excited. I feel like this means that I made it through the first year (even though I will have 4 weeks after I come back). But in those 4 weeks there are NO more write ups (the history and physicals we do at a local hospital and then write up in 30 page write ups...and they take hours upon hours and my hand gets so sore and wants to fall off), only 1 POPE (patient orientated practical exam = the most nerve wracking thing ever), NO PE exams from mosby's (which spelling counts and I spend eons memorizing spelling, which does not come naturally to me), so yeah...pretty pumped about making it this far! Praise Jesus!
So. What are we doing for spring break you may ask?
Well, let me tell you (this is also serving as a little accountability to actually get all these things done):
1. Taxes (ugh, but with all of our money going to school and medical bills we are hoping to at least not OWE money to Mr. Obama, that seems reasonable, right?)
2. Bills (we are STILL getting medical bills - and it seems like there are 439 from each appointment/procedure, but thankfully for once in our lives we were organized about something - this is literally the first time - and have a beautiful excel sheet to keep track of all these horrific medical bills)
3. Haircut for me (we cut Marks hair ourselves). I have not had a haircut since early July, and have terrible split ends, and my hair is just pretty gross (see super bowl post pic) - I think I am just going for a trim, but maybe I will go crazy and go a bit shorter.
4. Clean our room (this includes trying to eliminate the pizza hut smell from my lovely husbands uniform)
5. Clean my car (story of my life, I have no idea why I cannot keep my car clean. I blame it on driving so much back and forth across the state every weekend, and that seems to work, but yeah, def needs cleaned).
6. Study? That's on list, but we shall see. I have to do these health care issue journals that I have procrastinated all semester, boo.
7. Scholarships. (neeeeeed scholarships - see #2)
8. Babysit Anna and Amy (yippeeeee, I am not sure how many days I get to do this, but I am pumped. Its my favorite thing ever, and is a nice little help having some extra money)
9. Ultrasound of my neck. At 9am Monday morning. So pray everything looks good! I cant wait to we get to go to the ultrasound place for exciting things like babies, instead of seeing if they can find cancer. Blah.
10. Hang out with our friends Kelly and Mike Hass. Kelly was my roomie in our amazing Grand River house, and Mark was in their wedding as Mikes friend. They have 2 precious babies and just joined Crusade staff and moved back to Kalamazoo from Virginia! Yay!
11. Going to a meeting at Bethany Christian Services about adoption. This is just an informational meeting, and we are not even close to starting the process of adoption, but we are interested, and so we thought it would good to go and hear what they have to say. We both feel like God has such a heart for orphans, and we want a heart for what God does, and feel like adoption is such a sweet example of the gospel.
12. Going to Caraba's for some fundraiser thing that my mom bought tickets for with my family. I have never been there and am prettttty excited for some Italian!! My mom is also taking me out to dinner (because Mark is delivering) to celebrate surviving til Spring break
13. Spending much needed time with my amazing hubby. Things we are looking forward to include: sleeping in together (one of our favorite things), sleeping in the same house, catching up on The Office and Parks and Rec, practicing with our camera, and spending time with both of our families (including Mark's mom who currently is on a mission trip to Haiti...pretty cool huh? I cant wait to hear about it).
So that's it!
Some of the things are a bit less than glamorous, but I am so pumped to be home, with people I love, and not driving to Detroit Sunday night to go to school all week.
Oh yeah, and tomorrow I get to practice suturing on pigs feet at school! I am pretty pumped, hopefully I can sneak a picture to share!
Love,
Brittany
I literally cannot wait. I am almost giddy I am so excited. I feel like this means that I made it through the first year (even though I will have 4 weeks after I come back). But in those 4 weeks there are NO more write ups (the history and physicals we do at a local hospital and then write up in 30 page write ups...and they take hours upon hours and my hand gets so sore and wants to fall off), only 1 POPE (patient orientated practical exam = the most nerve wracking thing ever), NO PE exams from mosby's (which spelling counts and I spend eons memorizing spelling, which does not come naturally to me), so yeah...pretty pumped about making it this far! Praise Jesus!
So. What are we doing for spring break you may ask?
Well, let me tell you (this is also serving as a little accountability to actually get all these things done):
1. Taxes (ugh, but with all of our money going to school and medical bills we are hoping to at least not OWE money to Mr. Obama, that seems reasonable, right?)
2. Bills (we are STILL getting medical bills - and it seems like there are 439 from each appointment/procedure, but thankfully for once in our lives we were organized about something - this is literally the first time - and have a beautiful excel sheet to keep track of all these horrific medical bills)
3. Haircut for me (we cut Marks hair ourselves). I have not had a haircut since early July, and have terrible split ends, and my hair is just pretty gross (see super bowl post pic) - I think I am just going for a trim, but maybe I will go crazy and go a bit shorter.
4. Clean our room (this includes trying to eliminate the pizza hut smell from my lovely husbands uniform)
5. Clean my car (story of my life, I have no idea why I cannot keep my car clean. I blame it on driving so much back and forth across the state every weekend, and that seems to work, but yeah, def needs cleaned).
6. Study? That's on list, but we shall see. I have to do these health care issue journals that I have procrastinated all semester, boo.
7. Scholarships. (neeeeeed scholarships - see #2)
8. Babysit Anna and Amy (yippeeeee, I am not sure how many days I get to do this, but I am pumped. Its my favorite thing ever, and is a nice little help having some extra money)
9. Ultrasound of my neck. At 9am Monday morning. So pray everything looks good! I cant wait to we get to go to the ultrasound place for exciting things like babies, instead of seeing if they can find cancer. Blah.
10. Hang out with our friends Kelly and Mike Hass. Kelly was my roomie in our amazing Grand River house, and Mark was in their wedding as Mikes friend. They have 2 precious babies and just joined Crusade staff and moved back to Kalamazoo from Virginia! Yay!
11. Going to a meeting at Bethany Christian Services about adoption. This is just an informational meeting, and we are not even close to starting the process of adoption, but we are interested, and so we thought it would good to go and hear what they have to say. We both feel like God has such a heart for orphans, and we want a heart for what God does, and feel like adoption is such a sweet example of the gospel.
12. Going to Caraba's for some fundraiser thing that my mom bought tickets for with my family. I have never been there and am prettttty excited for some Italian!! My mom is also taking me out to dinner (because Mark is delivering) to celebrate surviving til Spring break
13. Spending much needed time with my amazing hubby. Things we are looking forward to include: sleeping in together (one of our favorite things), sleeping in the same house, catching up on The Office and Parks and Rec, practicing with our camera, and spending time with both of our families (including Mark's mom who currently is on a mission trip to Haiti...pretty cool huh? I cant wait to hear about it).
So that's it!
Some of the things are a bit less than glamorous, but I am so pumped to be home, with people I love, and not driving to Detroit Sunday night to go to school all week.
Oh yeah, and tomorrow I get to practice suturing on pigs feet at school! I am pretty pumped, hopefully I can sneak a picture to share!
Love,
Brittany
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Photo Safari!!!!!!
We have been experimenting with our new camera and here are some of the results:
-Mark
Monday, February 21, 2011
Happy Wayne State is closed day!
Mark drove to Detroit today, and is staying for tomorrow. There was another big snowstorm and school was cancelled today! Mark braved the weather and got here this afternoon and it has been absolutly wonderful, its so great just having him at our apartment! He has hardly made it to Detroit this winter because of all the work he is doing and just my sucky crazy school schedule. School is absolutly nuts, and I will do a post about that later...but I am really trying to remember how hard I worked to get into school, how much of a blessing it is to be in school, and to be thankful.
Mark also has been taking lots of pictures he promised to share them soon!!
Love,
Brittany
P.S. Spell check is not working so bear with my terrible spelling please!
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| This was our awesome super bowl party!! My mom made us little appetizers and we drank wine and had a good old time! Please excuse my pose. I have no idea.... |
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| Lex, as usual, was too cool for the team |
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| We spent a weekend (Friday night through very late Sunday) babysitting the Engelmann boys. Mark took them sledding to wear them out for me (what a guy right?) Here is Mark and Thomas in their matching Carherts! ....On a side note babysitting an extremly energetic ten year old boy and a teenaged boy all weekend (while Mark worked, and I tried to study) turns out to be a lot more exausting than we thought it would be. But we survived, it was fun, and it might have cured my baby fever for a while :) |
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| Mark and I got to go on a lovely date the other night, and the moon was full and perfect, so we thought we would go out and try and take some pictures. Turns out we havent mastered the art of moon pictures, the moon looks dissapointing in this pic, but it was beautiful! (I have my backpack on because I was carrying it in from the car - I dont wear it all the time, dont worry) |
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| My beautiful sister Jenna and I! She has moved home for the semester, and it is so much fun. We have been getting along so well, and I love just bopping around with her all weekend. P.S. Somtime Mark will have to share his story about moving Jenna into her new apartment (which was awful and they moved her right back out of). |
Mark also has been taking lots of pictures he promised to share them soon!!
Love,
Brittany
P.S. Spell check is not working so bear with my terrible spelling please!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Real Grace
In my effort to be as transparent as possible, I feel like it's time to share this story because of what it taught me, even though I am still trrrrrrremendously embarrassed about what happened. So here we go :)
About two weeks ago, I had a really neat opportunity to go to a conference in Lansing called, "Finding God's Will Conference." It was cheap, close, and only one day long, it was a complete no brainer to go. It featured two great speakers, Dr. Garry Frieson- author of "Decision Making and the Will of God," and came highly praised by my senior pastor because of how this book challenged his own faith many years ago. The other speaker was Kevin DeYoung, author of "Just do Something," and perhaps one of the greatest living theologians, period.
Brittany was going to come with me to Lansing and hang out with her friend and study.
The conference was at 8:30, and we had an hour and a half drive to get there, so it was an early Saturday morning. I wanted to get there on time and didn't want to be late, because I was reallllly excited! Like most people, I don't like to be late to things I'm really excited about, but in standard Mark and Brittany fashion, we were running late. I won't say who wasn't shuffling around fast enough that morning, but I will say that it wasn't me... so I was beginning to become frustrated.
We were going to drive both cars to Pizza Hut, so that on the way back, I could just be dropped off there and this could save us at least a half an hour on the way home, because we have to leave the conference a little early so that I could be back in time to deliver pizzas. But, when I went outside to brush off the cars, I noticed that both of our cars were blocked in, a fact that shouldn't surprise me. But it frustrated me. It frustrated me because I was already in the early stages of frustration, and because I was trying to figure out the thought process of females parking cars (I live with 4 women, who drive 4 cars, who have a two stall garage that rarely has more than one car in it....), a quandary that has plagued philosophers and civil engineers alike for centuries.
So I go back inside to get the keys to the car, that was parked by a person that wasn't the car's owner. After I find the keys, I go to move the car behind another car that is blocking the empty stall in the garage. Frustrating. It's cold. I have to brush off about eight cars in the process of solving this parking conundrum. My wife still isn't even outside yet. Growing more frustrated. I get in the car to move it, turn it on, and have an polar, gale force blown in my face, instantly freezing my eyelids shut, preventing me from being able to see the controls in order to turn off this man-made blizzard and the radio that was kindly turned to the volume to it's appropriate level to instantaneously rupture your eardrums. Growing more frustrated.
I finally defrost my eyelids enough to turn off the blizzard and "music," in to nurse my bleeding ears and frostbitten face and move this Japanese death puzzle (it was a Honda). I proceed to move the car and cannot get the car back up the driveway. Growing more and more frustrated. My ignorance was finally relieved when I notice that the parking brake is on. Ignorance is not bliss. Who even uses their parking brake??? It isn't like we live in Machu Picchu or some sort of other mountain settlement were you are parking on a precipice. We live in a subdivision that has a sign with its name on it at it's entrance. It's quaint and lovely. I park the car. At this point, I am Frustrated. Capital F, Frustrated.
At this point, I finally see Brittany and grumpily assert, "Finally, lets get going," or something to that effect. My tone and words were the opposite of endearing and encouraging. I get into my car and pull out of my parking spot quickly because it's is a little difficult to get out of because of the snow and I was late and frustrated. BAM!!! I back straight into my Mother-in-Law's car. I take a lot of pride in my driving and parking and being able to maneuver my car into and out of tight spaces and I can very loosely be called a professional driver (pizza delivery). I am so frustrated and embarrassed, I don't even know how to act so I proceed to grunt loudly and kick piles of snow (not super proud of this, but that's what happened).
Brittany gets out of her car at this point and is frustrated (no doubt because frustration is contagious), and yelling at me for being so dumb and how we can't afford anymore bills. I make some dumb comment about wanting to spend some money that wasn't on medical bills or school tuition. She didn't appreciate this comment and I probably even tried to blame me backing into her moms car on her. She starts crying. (She claims that I started crying, but I didn't. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't have because my tear ducts where still frozen shut from the Japanese death trap I have just freed myself from.) She goes to tell her mom, cries more, and grows more and more frustrated with every passing second. She is not at, or exceeding my frustration level. we get into our cars and drive to pizza hut. I didn't have to turn on my heater the whole way because I was fuming so much.
Here is where my lesson is learned:
We get to pizza hut and I get out of my car fully expecting to be received by a wife that is as cold as the arctic blast that I had experienced when I was stuck in that Japanese torture chamber, but was quite surprised at what happened next. My wife got out of her car and greeted me with a big hug. She told me not to worry, things would end up fine, and that she loves me. Wowwwwww! My mind equals blown! I apologize and we end up having a great conversation and had a great hour and a half car ride in which we grew a lot closer together.
I would be hard pressed to find a more REAL illustration of the grace of God. This situation couldn't be a better real life view of the Gospel!
Here I am, a slandering, rebellious, destructive, insulting, demeaning, blaming, and completely an annoying person towards my wife Brittany. Before I can do anything, she breaks down the wall I created between us and reaches out in forgiveness before I can even apologize. After I apologize we talk about it and our relationship grows and we grow closer and trust each other more. The damage to the car still had to paid for, and will be in order to make this situation completely right. This is almost exactly the pattern of the way we are towards God.
WE are a slandering, rebellious, destructive, insulting, demeaning, blaming, and completely annoying people towards God. But He chooses to reach out in forgiveness to us. Because God is just and holy, and our sin has consequences, our sin needs to be dealt with in order to be reconciled with God and fully receive this forgiveness. So in order to break down this wall between us, God sends Jesus as a propitiation (a two-part act that involves appeasing the wrath of an offended person (God) and being reconciled to them) for us. Now when we believe in Jesus Christ and actively repent in his name, we are reconciled with God and feel His loving embrace. After this, Sanctification(the process in which believer are pattern and grow in the likeness of Christ) happens and our life long relationship with God grows.
God is good. I thank Him so much for these clear examples of His love and forgiveness in my life. Although I am still embarrassed about the situation, it is something I will never forget. My prayer is that each and everyone of you will experience the grace of God in incredibly practical ways and that you can respond to them, pass along the grace, share your stories and grow closer to God and those around in you in the process.
Romans 3:21-26.
About two weeks ago, I had a really neat opportunity to go to a conference in Lansing called, "Finding God's Will Conference." It was cheap, close, and only one day long, it was a complete no brainer to go. It featured two great speakers, Dr. Garry Frieson- author of "Decision Making and the Will of God," and came highly praised by my senior pastor because of how this book challenged his own faith many years ago. The other speaker was Kevin DeYoung, author of "Just do Something," and perhaps one of the greatest living theologians, period.
Brittany was going to come with me to Lansing and hang out with her friend and study.
The conference was at 8:30, and we had an hour and a half drive to get there, so it was an early Saturday morning. I wanted to get there on time and didn't want to be late, because I was reallllly excited! Like most people, I don't like to be late to things I'm really excited about, but in standard Mark and Brittany fashion, we were running late. I won't say who wasn't shuffling around fast enough that morning, but I will say that it wasn't me... so I was beginning to become frustrated.
We were going to drive both cars to Pizza Hut, so that on the way back, I could just be dropped off there and this could save us at least a half an hour on the way home, because we have to leave the conference a little early so that I could be back in time to deliver pizzas. But, when I went outside to brush off the cars, I noticed that both of our cars were blocked in, a fact that shouldn't surprise me. But it frustrated me. It frustrated me because I was already in the early stages of frustration, and because I was trying to figure out the thought process of females parking cars (I live with 4 women, who drive 4 cars, who have a two stall garage that rarely has more than one car in it....), a quandary that has plagued philosophers and civil engineers alike for centuries.
So I go back inside to get the keys to the car, that was parked by a person that wasn't the car's owner. After I find the keys, I go to move the car behind another car that is blocking the empty stall in the garage. Frustrating. It's cold. I have to brush off about eight cars in the process of solving this parking conundrum. My wife still isn't even outside yet. Growing more frustrated. I get in the car to move it, turn it on, and have an polar, gale force blown in my face, instantly freezing my eyelids shut, preventing me from being able to see the controls in order to turn off this man-made blizzard and the radio that was kindly turned to the volume to it's appropriate level to instantaneously rupture your eardrums. Growing more frustrated.
I finally defrost my eyelids enough to turn off the blizzard and "music," in to nurse my bleeding ears and frostbitten face and move this Japanese death puzzle (it was a Honda). I proceed to move the car and cannot get the car back up the driveway. Growing more and more frustrated. My ignorance was finally relieved when I notice that the parking brake is on. Ignorance is not bliss. Who even uses their parking brake??? It isn't like we live in Machu Picchu or some sort of other mountain settlement were you are parking on a precipice. We live in a subdivision that has a sign with its name on it at it's entrance. It's quaint and lovely. I park the car. At this point, I am Frustrated. Capital F, Frustrated.
At this point, I finally see Brittany and grumpily assert, "Finally, lets get going," or something to that effect. My tone and words were the opposite of endearing and encouraging. I get into my car and pull out of my parking spot quickly because it's is a little difficult to get out of because of the snow and I was late and frustrated. BAM!!! I back straight into my Mother-in-Law's car. I take a lot of pride in my driving and parking and being able to maneuver my car into and out of tight spaces and I can very loosely be called a professional driver (pizza delivery). I am so frustrated and embarrassed, I don't even know how to act so I proceed to grunt loudly and kick piles of snow (not super proud of this, but that's what happened).
Brittany gets out of her car at this point and is frustrated (no doubt because frustration is contagious), and yelling at me for being so dumb and how we can't afford anymore bills. I make some dumb comment about wanting to spend some money that wasn't on medical bills or school tuition. She didn't appreciate this comment and I probably even tried to blame me backing into her moms car on her. She starts crying. (She claims that I started crying, but I didn't. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't have because my tear ducts where still frozen shut from the Japanese death trap I have just freed myself from.) She goes to tell her mom, cries more, and grows more and more frustrated with every passing second. She is not at, or exceeding my frustration level. we get into our cars and drive to pizza hut. I didn't have to turn on my heater the whole way because I was fuming so much.
Here is where my lesson is learned:
We get to pizza hut and I get out of my car fully expecting to be received by a wife that is as cold as the arctic blast that I had experienced when I was stuck in that Japanese torture chamber, but was quite surprised at what happened next. My wife got out of her car and greeted me with a big hug. She told me not to worry, things would end up fine, and that she loves me. Wowwwwww! My mind equals blown! I apologize and we end up having a great conversation and had a great hour and a half car ride in which we grew a lot closer together.
I would be hard pressed to find a more REAL illustration of the grace of God. This situation couldn't be a better real life view of the Gospel!
Here I am, a slandering, rebellious, destructive, insulting, demeaning, blaming, and completely an annoying person towards my wife Brittany. Before I can do anything, she breaks down the wall I created between us and reaches out in forgiveness before I can even apologize. After I apologize we talk about it and our relationship grows and we grow closer and trust each other more. The damage to the car still had to paid for, and will be in order to make this situation completely right. This is almost exactly the pattern of the way we are towards God.
WE are a slandering, rebellious, destructive, insulting, demeaning, blaming, and completely annoying people towards God. But He chooses to reach out in forgiveness to us. Because God is just and holy, and our sin has consequences, our sin needs to be dealt with in order to be reconciled with God and fully receive this forgiveness. So in order to break down this wall between us, God sends Jesus as a propitiation (a two-part act that involves appeasing the wrath of an offended person (God) and being reconciled to them) for us. Now when we believe in Jesus Christ and actively repent in his name, we are reconciled with God and feel His loving embrace. After this, Sanctification(the process in which believer are pattern and grow in the likeness of Christ) happens and our life long relationship with God grows.
God is good. I thank Him so much for these clear examples of His love and forgiveness in my life. Although I am still embarrassed about the situation, it is something I will never forget. My prayer is that each and everyone of you will experience the grace of God in incredibly practical ways and that you can respond to them, pass along the grace, share your stories and grow closer to God and those around in you in the process.
Romans 3:21-26.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
My husband is amazing....
Well, this is literally the worst scheduled week in PA school (lots of tests and a dreaded write up) and I was feeling so overwhelmed with so many things at the beginning of the week with lots of things. I had a melt down on the phone on Monday night with Mark, and was a brat in all honesty. Here is the e-mail I woke up to Tuesday (I took out a few specifics)...
Hey babygirl-
I know that the past couple of days have been trying and it's been exceedingly difficult to deal with certian situations that have been frustrating. I wish I could take that away, but I also think that this is a good time to take a step back and just realize who God is, and that He hasn't changed in this situation. He is still the God that has brought us to and from Texas, through our long distance engagement, through our simple life, through cancer, through our first year of marriage, to and through PA school and so many other things I can't list right now.
He laid the foundations of the earth, He sits over the heaven and earth on His throne, He measured the waters in His hand, He numbered the stars, He weighed the mountains in His scales, He authored Justice. Our problems are like a drop of water in a bucket to Him, or dust on a scale. He holds the world in His hands and oversees everything.
My point is, let's take some time and realize that God is bigger than this. Lets cast aside our idols of a perfect life, or a life that's easier, or a better position, or whatever it is, and just realize God is in control and we can take confidence in that. He hasn't forgotten us. He has something set aside for us to flurish in. Even though it isn't easy, we can rest in God together.
I love you so much baby girl. I hope that today goes great! I'm praying for the Lord to grant you new mercies today(Lam 3:22-23). You are so amazing and I'm so blessed by you :)
Marky
Isaiah 40:25-31
To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name,
by the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power
not one is missing.
Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God??
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings mlike eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Isn't he amazing?
Yeah, Im preeeetttty lucky.
And God brought us the storm of the decade and Wayne is closed tomorrow. It is literally the most exciting thing ever, and could NOT have been better timed. Praise God!
Love,
Brittany
Hey babygirl-
I know that the past couple of days have been trying and it's been exceedingly difficult to deal with certian situations that have been frustrating. I wish I could take that away, but I also think that this is a good time to take a step back and just realize who God is, and that He hasn't changed in this situation. He is still the God that has brought us to and from Texas, through our long distance engagement, through our simple life, through cancer, through our first year of marriage, to and through PA school and so many other things I can't list right now.
He laid the foundations of the earth, He sits over the heaven and earth on His throne, He measured the waters in His hand, He numbered the stars, He weighed the mountains in His scales, He authored Justice. Our problems are like a drop of water in a bucket to Him, or dust on a scale. He holds the world in His hands and oversees everything.
My point is, let's take some time and realize that God is bigger than this. Lets cast aside our idols of a perfect life, or a life that's easier, or a better position, or whatever it is, and just realize God is in control and we can take confidence in that. He hasn't forgotten us. He has something set aside for us to flurish in. Even though it isn't easy, we can rest in God together.
I love you so much baby girl. I hope that today goes great! I'm praying for the Lord to grant you new mercies today(Lam 3:22-23). You are so amazing and I'm so blessed by you :)
Marky
Isaiah 40:25-31
To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name,
by the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power
not one is missing.
Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God??
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings mlike eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Isn't he amazing?
Yeah, Im preeeetttty lucky.
And God brought us the storm of the decade and Wayne is closed tomorrow. It is literally the most exciting thing ever, and could NOT have been better timed. Praise God!
Love,
Brittany
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Christmas break update in photo form :)
Here is a recap of our amazingly awesome Christmas break. I will write more later but I got a sweet new camera for Christmas and have about 800 pictures so I will pick a few favorites to share, and these are in no particular order...
 |
| The hottest guy in the world. Oh yeah and my husband. This is on the beach of Anna Marie Island, trying to figure out the camera. |
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| Playing scrabble in Flordia with the in-laws. We played lots of speed scrabble, scrabble flash, monopoly (Mark and I on my phone), regular scrabble, and pictionary :) Love the board games. |
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| We went to see Manatees at the Tampa power plant. They huddle around there when it is chilly and so the bonus of it being freezing was we got to see real, live manatees. They were not nealy as pretty as this one, so I spared you and just showed this picture. |
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| Making a wreath for my mom for Christmas. It took forevvvvvvvvver. And about 2.3 million hot glue gun burns. But it turned out pretty well! And she still has it hanging up. Yay. |
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| We got to stay for a two night staycation in a cabin at Gull Lake Ministries. This was right when we got there. About an hour after we got there Mark contracted a stomach bug, or food poisioning or something, and spent most of the rest of the time in the bathroom. We ended up watching like 8 movies and it still was pretty wonderful. Quite a blessing. |
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| Anna and her Christmas wreath we helped her make for her parents for Christmas. We cut it out and put a cute picture in the middle. She was pretty into it. Prob not as much as me. |
 |
| And here is Amy after we made hers. Her little hands wouldnt stay open for the handprints so we did footprints. Turned out pretttty messy. |
 |
| Jennas friend Brenna came over and we played some rummicube (?) and were pretty much a few 80 year olds. |
 |
| Anna and her beloved marshmellows from the lucky charms. |
 |
| My sweet new camera and an awesome shirt I got from my mom. I loooove it! |
 |
| Anna and her teeny tiny violin. We play twinkle on another violin and she really thinks she is playing it. It's so great. |
 |
| The book that rocked our worlds this Christmas break. I highly recommend it. It really was challenging and convicting. |
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| I wish we would have kept track of how many boxes of lucky charms Lex, Jenn and I went through this break. I would estimate 15. No joke. |
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| Amy playing jingle bells and Anna thinking she was playing it. She is going to be so dissapointed one day when she finds out she cant really play all these insturments. And Amy came down for a day and it was wondddddddderful. She is in PA school in Tennesse, and its so fun to see her (which is like every few months unfortunatly) but it was such a fun day!! |
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| Lex and I and our New Years Eve cake that we made. It was amazing. |
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| How we spent New Years Eve. Watching the office. Jenna had just got home from the hospital and so we all just cuddled with her and enjoyed being home and together. (Mark was still in Flordia) |
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| mmm love that laugh |
This is our life.
:)
Love,
Brittany
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