Power in the Priesthood

I have always had a pretty strong faith and belief in the power of the priesthood. I've utilized it many a time throughout my life, and Heavenly Father has always come through for me (not that I ever doubted He would). I had a great roommate and friend in college who asked me once if she would like me to write down what was said in the blessing. The thought had never occurred to me, and I was honestly a little taken back. How sweet that advice was and how much I continue to cherish it today. She wrote down the words from the blessing I received that night, and I read it often.

There seems to be recurring themes for me whenever I receive a priesthood blessing. If you would oblige me for a moment, I would like list just a few.

1. My Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love me

2. They are proud of me

3. Seek guidance from the scriptures

These three have always come up (along with a few others) in each blessing I have received since college (basically the ones I have asked for and have had very spiritual experiences during). The one that always hits me so close to home though is that my Heavenly Father loves me, and so does Jesus Christ. In that moment, when those words are spoken, I have to catch my breath. My chest starts pounding, and it is undeniably the Spirit speaking to my soul that this is true. That He does love me. Me! For all my faults and short comings, I'm still striving to do what is right, and He loves me.

Wednesday of last week, I woke up with a sore throat. I did not think too much of it, but I started taking Mucinex like it's nobody's business. (See this post and you'll understand.) My best friend is getting married this week, and I did not want to be sick. Anyway, Wednesday came and went. Thursday rolls around, still have a sore throat, and little bit of head congestion. Keep taking Mucinex. After I got out of class, I had a bunch of errands to run, mostly groceries so I wouldn't have to buy any till after we got back from Arizona.

I came home, took a shower, got ready (well...I did my hair) and headed off to Costco. As I was driving, and later shopping through Costco, I could feel my body weakening, and this distinct ache in the back of my chest. It only got worse, and I pretty seriously considered not going to WalMart. Then I remembered...we have no food in the fridge. Dan needs something to eat for dinner. Suck it up and go. So I did. I called Dan though (he was on his way to an Elder's quorum meeting) and asked if he  could find another person to help give me a blessing. I had clinical the next day and really could not (nor did I want to) miss it. He said he would. I soldiered on.

Almost. Making it out of WalMart was a struggle. By this point (and I'm not even exaggerating), I had absolutely no confidence in my muscle strength to keep me moving. I was literally trying to get out of WalMart as fast as I could so I could get home. My back was aching furiously and it was all I could do to wait to cry till I got home.

Being the great nursing student I am, I figured I either had a cold or the flu...though a sinking feeling told me it was the flu. I was not having it. WebMD was anything but vague, so I made some soup and crawled into bed with the Office, praying that Dan would get home soon.

He did and I was able to receive a blessing. I had a thought in my mind as they laid their hands on my head: Heavenly Father, I'm turning this over to you. I can't do it anymore. Pretty much those exact words. I was promised that my faith would make me whole. I sincerely prayed that night to help my body heal so that I could at least function at clinical the next day. I went to be around 830 that night. I woke up at 1230 still not feeling great, but went back to sleep. 530 rolled around and I jumped right out of bed. Felt like I had never been better. My body did not hurt at all! No small miracle in my opinion. I really wanted to die the night before.

It not only gave me an incredible amount of peace, but also faith and knowledge that my Heavenly Father is aware of me. Completely. He knows my needs, and the desires of my heart. He also allows me to grow in faith. I'm so so grateful that I had the prompting, thought, inspiration, whatever you want to call it, to ask for a blessing. Somewhere in my mind I knew that that was the only way I was going to make it to clinical the next day.

He delivered...like He always does. This experience was extremely evident, but it only helped me to see that He always answers, and always lives up to His promises. Perhaps not always in ways that we can see, but He does. And the answers are always in ways that we need.

Winner winner Chicken dinner!

Let me start off by saying I never win anything. Ever. So much to the point that I stop even trying because I'm just like "ehh...whatevs." You know the feeling. Second, my best friend is getting married next week (HOLLAH) so you can only guess what that means....ARIZONA NEXT WEEK! I'm so stoked to get out of this horrendous cold weather and see some sunshine that actually has some heat packed into it! Of course, I'm also starting to get sick. It hit me yesterday, and today it's gotten worse. I think it's just a cold, but I've been downing mucinex like a mother to try and nip it in the butt. 

But back to contests. Dan works with a lady who is a part of this blog: http://ryrpacers.blogspot.com. Check it out. It's actually pretty cool. Well they were having a giveaway and Dan said we should enter because the prize was compression socks. I have been looking  into getting a pair of stockings for nursing because I can already feel my legs hurting halfway through the shift. I really really REALLY do not want varicose veins either. Hand over the granny stockings and keep my legs looking pretty! Anyway, so we entered the contest. Moved on with life, did homework, and went to bed. Oh and I took some mucinex...

I had lab this morning. Chest tubes and phlebotomy. Great fun actually, except we didn't know we were sticking each other. Luckily, it was successful on all fronts. I had a successful draw and Morgan had a successful draw on me! Susie (one of our instructors) had a vein finder/scanner type thing. I think we decided it reads the oxygenation off your skin with this red light...anyway, your veins are completely black under this light. It was LEGIT!! This is what it looked like under the light, except pretend the light was red instead of green. Same idea though. (picture pulled from the internet-I was too fascinated to take my own picture)

I have research right after, and I had 2 different texts from Dan saying Guess what?! Well, 2 hours later, I texted him back and then he said that I had won the compression socks!!! I totally didn't believe him, because I really never win anything. I checked on my phone though, and sure enough I had won! 

Crazy stuff huh?! Anyway, it just about made my entire day. That, and I didn't hyperventilate when Morgan was sticking me with the needle. I really am quite ridiculous and seriously traumatized. Oh well...it can only go up from here! So these are the kind of socks I'm getting! I picked black just so Dan and I can both wear them. I'm so so excited!!! (Photo from procompression.com).

Happy Thursday everyone!! Off to run errands and get crap done. 

ARIZONA BOUND NEXT WEEK!!!

He really is the BEST!!

Indulge me for a minute or two to brag about my most excellent husband.

So last night, I went to sleep around 11 (I had clinical at 545 the next morning in Salt Lake, so I had to get up early) and apparently I woke up around 12 last night, got right out of bed, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and started to get ready for clinical. Dan was just staring at me and then had to tell me that it was only 12, and to go back to sleep. I obliged, and climbed back in bed.

Well 230 rolled around, I woke up again, this time with some seriously intense stomach pain. I'll spare you the details, but it wasn't pretty. I pretty much just curled myself up in the fetal position and was trying to breathe through the nausea. My sweet husband rubbed my back and ran his fingers through my hair for what seemed like hours until I fell asleep. My alarm went off at 430, still felt like crap, long story short didn't go to clinical.

Come to find out when I woke up for real at 10 am this morning that he had stayed up till 5 this morning, making sure I was okay and that I didn't need anything. This guy had work at 11 this morning, and pretty much only got 5 hours of sleep, because he was taking care of me. Even when I was asleep.

I just love the crap out of him. I have always said he was the best thing that ever happened to me, and it's these super selfless moments, when I would have never known if he'd fallen asleep or not, that I realize just how blessed I am, and as sappy as it sounds, I fall more in love with him. He's definitely my other half, and I'll spend the rest of my life just trying to keep up with him.

Positive thinking

Dan showed me this video the other night and it's definitely a must watch. Honestly, it's life changing. I've been thinking about it for a couple of days now and I've just been wanting to blog about it.

One of the things that really stuck out to me was that you should look at obligations as opportunities. Lately this one has stuck with me. I got pretty sick Sunday night and I've been literally out of commission for the last 2 days. Flu. Sucks. Brief overview of how this week has gone.

Sunday night start coughing, not too bad though.

Monday still coughing but definitely manageable; got to work, coughing continues, body aches start; went home from work early

Tuesday STILL coughing, pretty intense body aches, fever, mild but enough to make you sweat; did not go to work

Wednesday AWFUL!!! absolutely freaking awful. Fever, sweating, coughing, aching; definitely did not go to work; went to the doctor. They couldn't decide if it was viral or bacterial. Dan left for Idaho. My momma and family left for Arizona. I got a prescription for a Z pack (in case it's bacterial) and heavy duty cough syrup with codeine (in case it's viral). I stayed in bed all day and watched movies. Oh and I didn't even go to school.

Thursday so much better!! I went to work, slight slight coughing. Still taking my cough syrup drugness. And I went to work. I sound like a man, but I can actually talk and not hack up a lung or feel achy and sickly. 

Anyway, the point in going over all this was that I also had to take a nursing test this week. Tuesday specifically was the last day. Sucked. But then Dan reminded me about that video and how I need to look at it as an opportunity to take the test. That it's an opportunity to learn and grow. I really liked that and the whole idea of taking a positive spin on life. 

It has a couple of other things that are included in the video and as soon as I find it on youtube I'll post it.

I haven't blogged in forever, but life is so busy right now, I probably won't blog till we've moved to Denver. 

This is awkward.

I've officially (*note officially) decided that having a cold in the middle of the freaking summer in the sweltering heat and humidity that is Texas is quite possibly the most awkward feeling in the world. If you already saw that on my facebook post, sorry.

I think I'm finally catching the tail end of what the boys and Jaynee had last week. I had a sore throat (and when I say sore I mean it was concentrated to one little pocket on my left tonsil--don't worry, I checked. It was the only one with a little yucky on it...and no that yucky wasn't strep. I checked that too. I've seen enough strep living with Raegan that I was 110% positive it wasn't strep). Wow that was a long interjection. And thing hang nail on my thumb hurts friggen bad!!

Back on topic, so I had a sore throat for like maybe 2 days at most. I started sucking on cough drops and popping vitamin C like candy as soon as it started hurting. Then it went away by Monday and then last night at basketball, seriously within the whole hour that we were there, my nose was stuffed up and I couldn't breathe out of it. I could seriously feel the membranes getting filled and plugged with fluid. Sucks. A big freaking fish.

So last night, my poor honey had to endure me snoring through the night because I couldn't breathe. He said this morning that within 15 minutes of me falling asleep, I was snoring. He had stayed up to read a book for a little bit. It was the pits. So I couldn't breathe all night, and woke up around 4 this morning to go blow my nose and after that I could not get comfortable. I'm getting seriously pissed off with my hypothalamus lately because my sleeping schedule is so wacked. I cannot sleep through the entire night to save my life. I always wake up at least once and it's almost always between the hours of 4 and 6 in the morning. For the life of me I can't figure out why. It would only be 2 in Arizona, so it's not like I'm used to waking up that early or anything. But it sucks. And it sucks even more when you're sick.

I'm glad though that yesterday I cleaned up my house and did most of the laundry because I almost put it off until today and clearly that wouldn't have happened. I did manage to drag myself to the gym and do 30 minutes of cardio. I'm not sure if that was the best thing for me or not, but hey it's all gotta get out of my system eventually. Let's just get it circulated around and out of me as fast as possible. I came home, and seriously all I wanted was ramen. Sick right? Out of all the food that I have in the fridge, I was just craving some chicken ramen. Kinda like when you're sick your mom always makes you chicken noodle soup? Well I always thought the soup was too watery, not concentrated enough. So I like ramen.

I drove to WalMart, walked down the pasta aisle, and started to grab a couple of packages of the chicken ramen. Well, lo and behold, they have creamy chicken ramen. They have picante chicken ramen. They have oriental and shrimp ramen! Geez louise! I knew about the shrimp and oriental kinds, but the creamy and picante? Dang I was shocked! So I got some creamy to try. I'll let you know how it comes out.

I realized today that Dan doesn't ever blog on here...not that he would, but I feel like it's always me telling stories. I guess I'm the one who has the time to tell them.

I was talking to Dan last night after we got home from basketball and was just asking him about Kameron. I never met him or got the chance to meet him. I wish I would have had that opportunity. One day I will. Anyway, so I was asking Dan to tell me about him so at least I can kind of have a feel for who my other brother is. I also asked Dan if he thought things would be different for him personally if Kameron hadn't passed away. He said he probably wouldn't have gone to EA and would have tried to go to a university, but when Kameron passed away, he just wanted to be close to family. In that instance, I wasn't grateful things happened the way that they did with Kameron, but I'm grateful for the out reaching effects that it had. I never would have met Dan. I wouldn't be here in Texas. And I wouldn't be this happy and in love. So I don't feel like "thank you" is appropriate, but if you catch my drift, I am grateful. And I'm grateful for the eternities that are ahead that I will get that opportunity to meet him and to know him.

So this post is super sketchy and all over the place, but it's all the thoughts that are going through my head right now, and at least if they get written down, someone can try to make sense of them later. Good luck to them! Haha.

On our little desk right here where the computer is, there's 3 pictures. One of them is one of my favorite wedding pictures with Dan's boutonniere right below it. Another is Dan with Matt and Kameron when Matt got home from his mission. The other is mine and Dan's favorite engagement picture. It's in a frame that was given to us by Jacie Ames and her family. The frame says this:

Faith  Hope  Love

The greatest of these is Love.